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THE DIAGNOSIS 



OF THE 



GERMAN 

OBSESSION 



WILLIAM ARMSTRONG FAIRBURN 



The Nation Press, Inc. 
New York 



^\ 






Copyright, 1918 

By William Armstrong Fairburn 

All rights reserved 



DEC 26 iSiS 



©CI.A5 08 6 0,> 



'♦^« ( 



This book is dedicated 
To the Torchbearers of Freedom Everywhere 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I The Chosen People ... 1 

II Atavistic Kultur .... 28 

III The Hohenzollern Curse . . 50 

IV The Dynastic Religion of War . 86 

V German State Morality . . .112 

VI German Antagonism to Arbitration 132 

VII Germany Willed the War 

(First Part) . . . . 144 

VII Germany Willed the War (Cont'd) 

(Second Part) .... 168 

VIII The Belgian Outrage . . .190 

IX The Freedom of Dynastic Slaves . 218 

X The Social Democrats' Apostasy . 234 

XI The Hohenzollern Debt to Bismarck 267 

XII The People's Share in the Crime „ 276 

XIII Despotism and Democracy . . 293 

XIV The Black Eagle and the White 

Dove 313 

XV German War Aims .... 324 

XVI Germany's Antagonism to America 334 

XVII America's Entry into the War . 345 



PREFACE 

THIS book represents the development of a 
chapter (written in Dec., 1917) on "Ger- 
many — an Illustration of Pernicious Na- 
tionalism," which the author originally outlined as 
a section on "National Loyalty" to be incorporated 
in a larger work on "Loyalty." The first three essays 
have already appeared in pamphlet form under the 
title of "The German Obsession." The remaining 
chapters were written during the Summer of 1918, 
from notes gathered since the Fall of 1914. 

There is nothing new in this book; it merely 
represents an attempt to unbiasedly portray truth 
and record history, and it therefore deals solely 
with evidence and fact. 

The presentation of the German case has been 
made by representative Germans, and their state- 
ments and arguments repeated before the tribunal 
of humanity have been considered in most cases so 
self-condemnatory and perniciously immoral that 
any counter-arguments would be superfluous and 
only reflect upon the intelligence, culture and spirit- 
uality of democratic peoples, who believe in that 
Universal Religion which demands individual lib- 
erty coupled with social obligations, and claims 
as its basic creed the Brotherhood of Man and the 
Fatherhood of God. 

For such a work as this it is impossible to present 
a satisfactory bibliography. The author has drawn 



PREFACE 

almost exclusively from official documents anjd 
the writings of German scholars, and generally 
accepted German authorities. He is, however, 
deeply indebted to many British and American 
scholars for their admirable and extremely valuable 
research work and translations of German writings 
and records. 

The four most valuable German works of recent 
date from which the writer has drawn, and which 
represent the finest thought of real, and there- 
fore repudiated or exiled, German patriots are: 
The Coming Democracy, by Hermann Fernau; 
J' Accuse, by "A German;" The Vandal of Europe, 
by Wilhelm Miihlon, and the Memorandum of 
Prince Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador to 
London prior to the commencement of hostilities. 

Acknowledgment should also be made of the fol- 
lowing admirable works: The Evidence of the 
Case, by James M. Beck; The Peril of Prussian- 
ism, by Douglas W. Johnson; Gems of German 
Thought, compiled by Wilham Archer; Conquest 
and Kultur, by Professors Wallace Notestein and 
Elmer Stoll and German Plots and Intrigues, by 
Prof. Earl E. S perry — the last two issued by the 
Committee on Public Information; British and 
German Ideals — The Round Table, etc. 

If, in the arranging of hastily prepared notes and 
the development of these essays, written under most 
unfavorable conditions, proper credit has not been 
given to the original writer of any quotation, the 
omission is quite unintentional and is regretted. 

It is to be hoped that the horrible world war will 
be at an end by the time this book reaches the hands 
of my friends. But unless the war ends with the 
overwhelming military defeat of the Germans 



PREFACE 

and their Allies, the moral regeneration of the Teu- 
tonic people, with their repudiation of the Hohen- 
zollern and Hapsburg absolute dynasties, and the 
formation of a League of Nations along practical 
lines, the future peace of the world will still be 
menaced. No peace of negotiation and compro- 
mise will justify the sacrifices of the noble heroes 
who have bled for liberty, justice, truth and 
democracy. 

W. A. F. 

Great Barrington, Mass. 
September 14, 1918. 



I. 



"The Chosen People^^ 

THE nationalism of Germany has shaken the 
entire world and plunged hmnanity into hor- 
ror and despair. Germany stands forth as a 
hideous example of an irrehgious loyalty which 
deifies country, rulers and people, and in doing so, 
damns himianity and the soul of the world. It 
would be unfair to study the case of Germany as a 
pernicious example of exclusive and extreme nation- 
alism, if the evidence considered emanated from 
bitter enemies or malicious adversaries in the coun- 
tries with which she is at war. In such times as 
these, justice demands that Germany be given an 
opportunity to explain her attitude and ideals, her 
motives and actuating beliefs, and if Germans are 
placed on the witness stand to give testimony in a 
judicial consideration of the worth, nature and sub- 
stance of German nationalistic loyalty, we shall err 
on the side of the accused, whose actions have 
brought Teutonia before the bar of the peoples of 
the world and the tribunal of Humanity's God. 

Much of the testimony to be presented for con- 
sideration is the written word of Germans penned 
for the eyes of Germans and not for foreign circula- 
tion, for it is fairer to the German "loyalist" to per- 
mit him to explain his psychological attitude in his 
own way, and as we read we see Germany's soul in 
the mirror of Germany's own making. 

The Israelites in the early Old Testament days 



2 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

worshipped Yahweh, a tribal God, who fought with 
them in battle, harassed their enemies and advocated 
savage cruelty and a ruthless warfare of extermina- 
tion against all other peoples. The Jews have ad- 
vanced in their knowledge of God, but the concep- 
tion that they long since discarded the Germans 
have taken up, and thus we see the barbarities of 
millenniums past enacted in modern Europe and 
sanctioned by the "religious" leaders of a people 
cursed by their depraved and essentially inhuman 
nationalism. 

Prof. Werner Sombart in Hucksters and Heroes 
has said, "Now we understand why the other na- 
tions pursue us with their hatred ; they do not under- 
stand us, but they are sensible of our enormous spir- 
tual superiority. So the Jews were hated in an- 
tiquity because they were representatives of God on 
earth," and again, "A good Providence watches over 
the fate of the German people which is destined to 
the highest things on this earth." Pastor Rump in 
War Devotions declares that the Germans "have 
become heirs of Israel, the people of the Old Testa- 
ment covenant. We shall be the bearers of God's 
promises" and "Verily the Bible is our Book. It 
was given and assigned to us, and we read in it the 
original text of our destiny, which proclaims to man- 
kind salvation or disaster according as we will it." 
Pastor Tobzien in My German Fatherland says, 
"As was Israel among the heathen, so is Germany 
among the modern nations — the pious heart of Eu- 
rope." The Israelites, however, advanced beyond 
this crude, primitive conception of Yahweh, a tribal 
God, and their ethical prophets taught that there is 
only one God and He, a universal God of righteous- 
ness. The Germans still worship Odin, their tribal 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 3 

god of war, and to them in their egoistic hypocrisy, 
applies with pecuhar emphasis the admonition of the 
real Judaic and Christian God of love. "When ye 
spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from 
you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not 
hear: Your hands are full of blood." (Isaiah 1 :15.) 

Dr. Preuss, the theologian, has written "The Ger- 
man people are the spiritual, the religious parallel 
of the people of Israel, they are 'the true Israel be- 
gotten of the spirit.' " And again, "It was the hid- 
den meaning of God that He made Israel the fore- 
runner of the Messiah, and in the same way He has, 
by His hidden intent, designated the German peo- 
ple to be His successor." What diabolical sacrilege! 
What insufferable national conceit and psycholog- 
ical viciousness! But to prove that the sentiment is 
general, one has only to consult the German press, 
clerical and state utterances and Reichstag delib- 
erations. Francke said, "German craving for truth 
and German strength of faith working along Bib- 
lical paths have attained to the true faith, the pure 
religiousness . . . The Germans are the very 
nearest to the Lord and may claim that they have 
'continued His Word.' " 

Hauptmann, near the beginning of the war, 
averred that the "cultured" German soldier carried 
Nietzsche and the Bible in his knapsack, and Hen- 
ning states that in war time the Old Testament be- 
comes "the book for everj^ day reading." Ernst V. 
Lasaulx in Philosophy of History (1856) tells us 
"It is no mere chance that the earliest piece of poe- 
try, the oldest three distiches of the Old Testament, 
the Song of Lamech, is a song of triumph over the 
invention of the sword (Gen. 4:22-24)." Thus in 
the middle of the nineteenth century we see for- 



4 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

saken the humane, ethical and spiritual teachings of 
Fichte, that great and loyal German nationalist, 
and the sword — which he used in defense of his 
beloved land, but nevertheless hated — becoming dei- 
fied in heu of brotherhood and the spirit of the 
peaceful, loving Christ, — the sublime democrat of all 
ages. Fichte scathingly condemned the militaristic 
mania of Napoleonism, with its deification of brute 
force and physical might, and he urged his country- 
men to build a nationalism of culture upon a firm 
and lasting foundation of reality and spirit, with its 
universal truth, loyalty and world-wide humanity. 
Germany claims that her nationalism has been built 
upon the philosophical teachings of the noble Fichte, 
but materialistic Teutonism is diametrically opposed 
to the spiritual teachings of Fichte, who, in that 
period of national humiliation, when Berlin was 
occupied by the troops of Napoleon, sought to 
arouse his shaclded and despoiled countrymen from 
their despair, and "replace what they had lost in 
physical resources, by moral strength." 

Fichte told the down-trodden and discouraged 
Germans that they must arise again, strong after 
their defeat ; and to inspire and encourage them to 
reconstructive action, he affirmed that it was "they 
on whom the future of the world depended." He 
also admonished his fellow countrymen to ''Seek not 
to conquer with bodily weapons, but stand firm and 
erect in spiritual dignity. Yours is the greater des- 
tiny — to found an empire of mind and reason, to 
destroy the dominion of rude, physical power as the 
ruler of the world" Napoleon sought to conquer 
the world, and in the reaction to such mihtaristic 
domination, the Germany of today was born. Fichte 
struggled to place the rock of spiritual understand- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 5 

ing beneath the feet of the nation, and the Tugend- 
hund or "League of Virtue" was formed; but broth- 
erhood was soon restricted to one's fellow country- 
men, and a German God supplanted the Universal 
God of Humanity. 

Kuhn acknowledges the perversion of German 
ambitions from the more spiritual ideals of Fichte, 
when he says, "History has made us Germans the 
inheritors of the Napoleonic idea." Treitschke tells 
us "The Bible distinctly says that the ruler shall rule 
by the sword," and "A nation's military efficiency 
is the exact coefficient of a nation's idealism." Bern- 
hardi makes the bold statement, deplorably true in 
practice but absolutely false in the idealistic sense in 
which it is used, that "There never was a religion 
which was more combative than Christianity." This 
may be true of the German brand of Christianity, 
but there are many people in the world who found 
their conception of Christianity on the teachings of 
Christ, and who worship the Universal God of 
Christ, the Pleavenly Father of all men, and not a 
tribal or national god. 

Germany has abandoned Christianity for a pagan 
tribal god, and Odin, "the mad and raging one," has 
come back to his own ; Valhalla with its boastf ulness, 
banquets and brawls has displaced the heaven of 
peace and righteousness, and only German heroes, 
slain in physical combat, will be transported by the 
Valkyries to the life beyond. 

Prof. Cramb in Germany and England com- 
pletely changes the Christ spirit as expressed in the 
Beatitudes of The Sermon on the Mount, and in 
the New Imperative, gives to the world a definite 
expression of the real German spirit of barbaric mil- 
itarism: — "Ye have heard how in old times it was 



6 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

said, 'Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the 
earth,' but I say unto you. Blessed are the valiant, 
for they shall make the earth their throne. And ye 
have heard men say, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit ;' 
but I say unto you. Blessed are the great in soul 
and free in spirit, for they shall enter into Valhalla. 
And ye have heard men say, 'Blessed are the peace- 
makers;' but I say unto you. Blessed are the war- 
makers, for they shall be called, if not the children 
of the Judaic-Christian God, the children of Odin 
(the ancient German god of war) who is greater 
than the Judaic-Christian God." 

In the realm of religion. Prof. Cramb has proved 
as honest as Maximihan Harden in the field of poli- 
tics. Harden urged his countrymen to stop lying 
and admit that Germany deliberately planned and 
willed the war, and that for them the war was one 
of aggression and conquest. Prof. Cramb drops the 
hypocrisy of claiming Christian sanction for Prus- 
sian brutality, and among German religionists he 
stands as solitary a figure as does Harden in the 
field of politics. German militarists, professors and 
philosophers for decades have preached the doctrine 
of aggressive force, but when Germany expressed 
this doctrine by action, they all hypocritically and 
completely changed their front, and under Imperial 
direction, urged that the war — forced upon the 
world by the HohenzoUern and Hapsburg dynas- 
ties — was a justifiable war of defense. 

We are told by the Germans that "This war is a 
world ordeal arranged by God." Those who have 
read and compared the White, Blue, Red, Gray, 
Yellow and Orange books prepared by the govern- 
ments of the various belligerent nations, know that 
Germany and Austria forced this world-war upon 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 7 

peace-loving peoples. If God decreed this war, then 
the Teutons are assuredly His chosen people, for no 
other people could be found in the whole world 
wicked enough to undertake it. A people's concep- 
tion of God is an index of their culture and morality. 
The God of a people is a reflection of those qualities 
which the people value the most highly and consider 
the most potent. The German God, like Yahweh 
of Old, is an intolerant, exclusive tribal God of 
War, jealous and passionate, capricious and re- 
vengeful. There is truth in the bitter and ironical 
saying of Voltaire, "Since God created man in His 
own image, how often has man endeavored to render 
a similar service to God?" Luigi Luzzatti, protest- 
ing against the Teuton abuse of the name of God, 
has said, "Let us save God from such profanation! 
Let us leave in peace the Father of all mankind who 
punishes guilt and rewards virtue, and who gives no 
one the right to represent Him on earth and to claim 
for himself His omnipotence in this 'tragedy of 
war.' " 

Pastor Lehmann in On the German God says, 
"The German soul is the world's soul; God and Ger- 
many belong to one another. . . . The German 
soul is God's soul; it shall and will rule over man- 
kind. . . . Germany is the center of God's plans 
for the world," and again he says that Germans, the 
"ultimate purpose" of God, must defend "God 
against the world." Karl Engelbrecht tells us that 
God will help the Germans, "for He is German," and 
"there lurks in our people something of that God- 
consciousness which inspired the Old Testament 
prophets." 

The Kaiser, in his speech at Bremen on March 
22nd, 1905, proclaimed to his people, "We are the 



8 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

salt of the earth." And in Protestantenhlatt (1915) 
we read, "If you ask me 'How shall I build up the 
Kingdom of God?' my answer is 'Be a good Ger- 
man.' . . . Seek to submerge yourself in German 
spirit, in German mind. Help as best you can 
toward our victory; help to make our fatherland 
grow and wax mighty." 

In one of a series of pamphlets published by the 
professors of Berlin University, we read these words 
by Prof. Deissmann, "The German God is not only 
the theme of some of our poets and prophets, but 
also a historian like Max Lenz has with fiery tongue 
and in deep thankfulness borne witness to the reve- 
lation of the German God in our Holy War. The 
German, the national God! . . . This (war) is 
no relapse to a lower level, but a mounting up to 
God Himself," and again he says, "In the age of 
the most tremendous mobilization of physical and 
spiritual forces the world has ever seen, we proclaim 
. — no, we do not proclaim it, but it reveals itself — 
the Religion of Strength." 

In this elective alhance with God, the Germans 
are purely selfish ; they are not actuated by any spirit 
of idealism beyond their o^n temporal benefit; 
Naumann, a member of the Reichstag, brazenly 
said that Germans "hold the alliance between Provi- 
dence and our people to be a matter of necessity." 
It was probably for the same reason that Germany, 
feeling that the German God would not be powerful 
enough to conquer the Triple Entente, made an alli- 
ance with the god of the Turkish Mohammedans. 
Francke in War Sermons says, "We fight them 
(the Allies) for Christianity as against degenera- 
tion and barbarism. . . . God must be with us 
and victory ours. This is guaranteed us by the truth 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 9 

of our nature, which is as German as it is Christian," 
but Dr. Huber wrote, "We look for the most valu- 
able aid from Pan-Islamism, from the living sense 
of solidarity between ail Moslems of the whole world, 
dependent on their common religion. . . . If all 
accounts be true, the whole Moslem world is flocking 
round the Sultan-Kalif and regards this war as a 
'Holy War.' " Much that is said by Teutonic pas- 
tors of Christ could be more fittingly said of Mo- 
hammed, and what they please to term "Christian- 
ity" is a form of Islamism robbed of its spiritual 
nature. It is, therefore, amusing to read the follow- 
ing which emanated from Dr. Preuss, "The thief 
who expiated a sinful past by his repentance in the 
last hour and was outwardly subjected to the same 
suffering as our Lord, is the type of Turkish nation 
which now puts Christianity (outside of Germany) 
to shame." 

Wilhelm Miihlon wrote in his diary under date 
of September 1st, 1914, "Appeals to God and praise 
to Him never cease. There is no despatch or bulle- 
tin in which the Kaiser does not say : 'God has helped 
us. May He help us further. He will help us further, 
the Christian's God, the German God, the God of 
Battles, who never deserts the righteous (German) 
cause." And again on November 10th, 1914, "The 
Turkish Government, just like the rest of us, calls 
loudly in its proclamations and war bulletins on 
God, who recognizes the justice of the Turkish cause 
and protects that cause. The Tm-kish Government 
also describes itself as the attacked and persecuted 
party, forced to enter the war by implacable enemies 
of the Turkish Empire. This hypocritical croak- 
ing on the part of accomplices in crime must be a 



10 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

pleasing concert for the ears of the Ruler of the 
world." 

German nationalism is made superior to religion, 
and its demand upon the human soul greater than 
that of any other loyalty, no matter how real, hu- 
mane and essentially spirtual it may be. Germany 
mobilizes all organized religions as well as the inher- 
ent spiritual natures of her people for her own 
material, nationalistic ends ; thus the innate religious 
sense of a people is deadened, and this atrophy of 
the spirit is accompanied by an arrogant egoism — 
the antithesis of that universal loyalty which ema- 
nates from the soul of the world. Heinrich Leo has 
said, "The Celtic race has always been moved by an 
animal instinct, while we Germans only act under 
the influence of a holy and sacred thought." It is 
interesting to note that two millenniums ago Caesar 
distinguished the Gaul and Celt from the German 
in their basic conceptions of religion, and in the 
influence of religion upon their hves and thought. 
He noticed that the Germans put no trust in unseen 
gods or in the learned and spiritually-minded 
Druids, but worshipped "those alone whom they 
see and by whom they are benefited — the sun, fire 
and the moon," — a truly Teutonic characteristic. 

Valleius Paterculus (19 B. C.-31 A. D.), the 
Roman historian who served for eight years as Prae- 
fect of cavalry and Legatus in Germany, wrote, 
"The character of the Germans presents a terrible 
blend of ferocity and trickery ; they are a people of 
born liars." What a stubborn, persistent thing type 
is ! Nineteen centuries have rolled by since Valleius 
Paterculus penned his description of the Germans, 
yet the picture is as pertinent today in the twenti- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 11 

eth century as it was at the dawn of the Christian 
era. 

The "religion" of Germany has in reality thor- 
oughly repudiated Christ and the teachings of the 
New Testament. But Germany calls herself a 
"Christian" nation, and the German Emperor a 
Christian ecclesiastic, the head of the Protestant 
United Church of Prussia ; for, while Pan-German- 
ism professes to find justification for its ruthless na- 
tionahsm in the Old Testament and in the ancient 
writings or Bible of Judaism, it cannot afford to 
openly and officially adopt an anti-Christ policy. 
The words of Christ and the teachings of the apos- 
tles are therefore perverted, profaned and mobilized 
in the interest of German nationalism ; Christ is pic- 
tured as the patron Saint of Germany ; and the Ger- 
man nation, with its cruel, pitiless heart and hands 
wallowing in human blood, is likened to the compas- 
sionate Christ. 

Hofpradikant Stipberger has said "A hard and 
steep via Cruets lies before the great benefactor and 
magnanimous liberator of the kultur-world, the Ger- 
man people. Although it looks beyond the gloom of 
Good Friday to the dawn of Easter Morn, beyond 
the dark days of war to the beacons of triumph — 
yet the Cross still rests on its shoulders, and the Gol- 
gotha of the hardest decision still awaits it." Teu- 
tonic "pastors" seem to particularly revel in that 
devilish hypocrisy that likens the German nation to 
Christ. Francke in War Sermons has said, "As 
Jesus was treated, so also have the German people 
been treated," and Miinch goes still further and 
elaborates on this pernicious theme, — "Is not Ger- 
many itself transformed into a suffering Christ? 
We, too, have gone through our hour of trial on the 



12 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Mount of Olives when, with our Kaiser, we prayed 
that the cup of sufering might pass from us; and 
we, too, obeying the unfathomable will of God, have 
begun to drain it. . . . We, too, were betrayed by 
those to whom we had shown nothing but justice 
and kindness ; and around us, too, resounded in ac- 
cents of hatred and envy, the cry of 'Crucify 
Him!' " Many people in Germany, as in other 
lands, undoubtedly prayed during the last week in 
July, 1914, that the world might be saved from the 
horrors of war, but they most assuredly did not pray 
"with our Kaiser." He and his ministers with "Ems 
Telegrams" were proving to the world that even 
Bismarck, the unscrupulous nationalist and the man 
of "blood and iron," who successfully willed and 
inaugurated the Franco-Prussian war by fraud and 
deliberate lies, was an amateur as compared with 
the present ruling power of Germany, in the pro- 
duction of false telegrams and forged, mutilated and 
fictitious official documents. 

Dr. Preuss, the German theologian, says, "Our 
people are experiencing a repetition of the Passion 
of Christ," and Pastor Rump in War Devotions 
writes, "A Jesus-less horde, a crowd of the Godless 
are in the field against us. . . . May God sur- 
round us with His protection . . . since our defeat 
would also mean the defeat of His Son in human- 
ity," and again, "We are fighting for the cause of 
Jesus within mankind." Pastor Erdmann in The 
Christianity of the Belligerent Nations says that 
"The German people, bearing forward in victory 
the Evangel of the Cross of Christ, is the great 
Christophorus in the world of nations." William 
Archer, commenting on this assertion, remarked 
that the particular injunction of the Evangel of 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 13 

Christ which inspired the sinking of the Lusitania 
was no doubt "suffer Httle children to come unto 
me." And we might fittingly ask if the Zeppelins 
and Gothas, which bombed unprotected homes and 
schools and atrociously murdered seven hundred 
and fifty-seven innocent English children and three 
hundred and forty-two women, — up to the end of 
March, 1918 — carried forward on their diabolical 
flight of death the "Evangel of the Cross of 
Christ?" 

Dr. Deissmann, Professor of New Testament 
Exegesis at Berlin, and a man who has obtained 
honorable degrees at Aberdeen, St. Andrews and 
Manchester, well illustrates how the subtle Pan- 
German poison has completely deadened the finer 
discriminating, rational faculties of even the most 
worthy Teuton citizens: — "Christianity is possessed 
of potent spiritual energies, since it inspires our 
minds, not only with patience, but also with digni- 
fied pride. 'Blessed are ye when men shall reproach 
you and persecute you and say all manner of evil 
against you falsely for my sake !' I quite understand 
Friedrich Naimiann's declaration that this text has 
meant much to him in these days." 

As an illustration of the complete obsession of a 
supposedly discriminating, rational, human mind 
by a pernicious nationalism, we cannot do better 
than refer to letters wi'itten in September, 1914, by 
Adolf Lasson, Professor of Philosophy in the Uni- 
versity of Berlin, in which he says, "We are morally 
and intellectually superior to all — without peers. 
It is the same with our organizations and with our 
institutions. . . . We are truthful, our character- 
istics are humanity, gentleness, conscientiousness — 
the virtues of Christ. In a world of wickedness we 



14 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

represent love, and God is with us." Pastor Leh- 
mann in Von Deufschen Gott (1915) said, "The 
German nation leads in the domains of kiiltur, sci- 
ence, intelligence, morahty, art and religion, and 
in the entire domain of the inner life. . . . The 
world shall ... be healed by the German spirit. 
. . . Germany is the leader in the entire domain of 
intellect, character and soul. . . . This war is a 
war of envy and jealousy of Germany's leadership. 
It is a fight of hounds against a noble quarry." Dr. 
Paul Conrad, Pastor of the Kaiser Wilhelm Me- 
morial Church in Berlin, in Stark in dem Herrn 
(1915), said, "We Germans feel ourselves to be 
the bearers of a superior kultur. We have no doubt 
that a defeat of our people would retard, by many 
centuries, the development of mankind. On the 
other hand, we hope, by the victory of our arms, to 
bring about a new efflorescence of humanity through 
the German nature, which will prove itself fruitful 
of blessings to other peoples." The same general 
thought is taught in German schools and universi- 
ties, by the "authoritative" press, and is preached 
from the pulpits. Pastor Francke merely ex- 
pressed the prevailing Teutonic sentiment decreed 
by the Prussian dynasty when he said, "Germany 
is precisely the representative of the highest moral- 
ity, of the purest humanity, of the most chastened 
Christianity." Such egoism could only consort 
with wickedness. 

The Germans calling themselves, in their colos- 
sal self-glorification, "Children of the future," have 
gravitated back to a morahty below that of the 
Stone Age, and made their warfare of lust the more 
hideous through the devices of modern science. 
Goethe (1749-1832) wrote, "Germans are of yes- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 15 

terday — a few centuries must still elapse before it 
will be said of them 'It is long since they were bar- 
barians.' National hatred is a peculiar thing, you 
will always find it strongest and most violent where 
there is the lowest degree of culture," and again, 
"The Prussians are cruel by nature; civilization 
will make them ferocious." Schiller, the cosmopoli- 
tan Professor of History at Jena, is another of 
those "damned literary fellows" who in their day 
were denounced by the Hohenzollerns and their 
subsidized Intellectuals. In 1789, he said that a 
man who wi'ote exclusively for one people or one 
nation — as demanded by the dynasty — had a low 
aim and was unworthy of his calling. "A philo- 
sophic spirit cannot tolerate such limits, cannot 
bound its views to a form of nature so arbitrary, so 
fluctuating and so accidental." Schopenhauer, one 
of the greatest of German philosophers, and one 
who refused to sell his soul to the Prussian dynastic 
interests, said, just before he died in 1860, "In an- 
ticipation of death, I make this confession, that I 
despise the German nation on account of its infinite 
stupidity, and that I blush to belong to it." Ignor- 
ance and vice, stupidity and crime generally go to- 
gether, and Prussian "sabre rattlers" are no ex- 
ception to the rule. 

Among the first recorded words of Nietzsche 
(1844-1900) are those uttered in his Bale lectures 
in 1873, in criticism of German educational insti- 
tutions. He asked if education, the great civilizing 
force in the world, was to be the servant of human- 
ity or merely a German-state instrument? It 
should be the former, but he affirmed that it was the 
latter, for the Prusso-German system compelled it 
"to renounce its highest and most independent 



16 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

claims in order to subordinate itself to the service of 
the state." Nietzsche compared the dissemination 
of hultur under the Prussianized and Bismarckian 
German-state to a reeling, torch-lit and self-ab- 
sorbed procession of worshippers, intoxicated by 
the mysteries of some pagan cult. "The state as- 
sumes the attitude of a mystagogue of kultur, and, 
while it promotes its own ends, it obliges every one 
of its servants not to appear in its presence without 
the torch of universal state education in his hands, 
by the flickering light of which he may recognize the 
state as the highest goal, as the reward of all his 
striving after education;" and again, "This purpose 
of state is at war with the real German spirit and 
the education derived therefrom . . . with that 
spirit which speaks to us so wondrously from the 
inner heart of the German reformation, German 
music and German philosophy, and which, like a 
noble exile, is regarded with such indifference and 
scorn by the much-vaunted education afforded by 
the state." 

Almost the last words of. Nietzsche were, like the 
first, devoted to this same general theme. "Not 
only have the Germans entirely lost the breadth of 
v^ision which enables one to gi'asp the course of cul- 
ture and the values of culture; not only are they 
one and all political puppets, but they have actually 
put a ban upon this very breadth of vision. A man 
must first and foremost be 'German,' he must be- 
long to 'the race;' then only can he pass judgment 
upon all values and lack of values in history; then 
only can he establish them. To be German is in 
itself an argument; Deutschland ilber alles is a 
principle; the Germans stand for 'the moral order 
of the universe' in history. Compared with the Ro- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 17 

man Empire, they are upholders of freedom; com- 
pared with the eighteenth century, they are restor- 
ers of morality, of the categorical imperative. 
There is such a thing as the writing of history ac- 
cording to the lights of Imperial Germany. . . . 
There is also history written with an eye to the 
court, and Herr von Treitschke is not ashamed of 
himself." 

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) said of his people, 
"Nature has made them (the Prussians) stupid; 
science has made them wicked." Concerning the 
progressive atrophy of intellect and conscience, 
Heine said, "Luther shook Germany to its founda- 
tions, but Francis Drake pacified Germany's intel- 
lect by giving us the potato, and a Miinchen brewer 
pacified our conscience by giving us beer." Sar- 
casm can go no further. Some time ago Kaiser 
Wilhelm II boasted that his army had already de- 
stroyed seventy - three Gothic cathedrals and 
churches. Sixty years before this war began, Heine 
foretold most of its crimes, for he knew that bitter 
springs of hatred and cruelty must ^ve forth pois- 
oned waters of death. He wrote in regard to archi- 
tecture that by some queer, unexplainable chance, 
Gothic builders erected the magnificent Cathedral of 
Cologne on the edge of Germany. "What a calam- 
ity! It is only a question of time when the old sav- 
age German impulses will assert themselves and 
the Germans will turn that cathedral into a heap of 
ruins." 

Rheims Cathedral has been repeatedly and de- 
liberately shelled by the Germans on the false ex- 
cuse that there was an observation post on the 
tower. Other cathedrals, churches and magnificent 
edifices have been wantonly destroyed, including the 



18 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

University Library at Louvain, with its archives 
and collections of unpublished manuscripts. None 
of these splendid structures were used for military 
purposes, but their destruction is universally ap- 
proved in Germany; Major General von Disfurth 
expressed the prevailing German thought and ex- 
cuse when, after a few months of war, he said, 
"The meanest grave of one of our soldiers" (wan- 
tonly attacking the homeland of a foreign people) 
"is more venerable than all the cathedrals and all 
the art treasures of the world." 

Gen. von Disfurth quite completely expressed the 
doctrine of the hideous and morally repellent Prus- 
sian Religion of War and the horrors of the Prusso- 
German "philosophy" of Brute Power and Immor- 
alism, when in the Hamburger Nachrichten he said, 
"No object whatever is served by taking any notice 
of the accusations of barbarity leveled against Ger- 
many by our foreign critics. Frankly, we are and 
must be barbarians, if by this we understand those 
who wage war relentlessly and to the uttermost de- 
gree. . . . We owe no explanation to any one. 
There is nothing for us to justify and nothing to 
explain away. Every act of whatever nature com- 
mitted by our troops for the purpose of discourag- 
ing, defeating and destroying our enemies is a 
brave act and a good deed, and is fully justified. 
. . . Germany stands as the supreme arbiter of 
her own methods, which in the time of war must be 
dictated to the world. . . . They call us barbar- 
ians. What of it? We scorn them and their abuse. 
For my part I hope that in the war we have merited 
the title of barbarians. Let neutral peoples and 
our enemies cease their empty chatter, which may 
well be compared to the twitter of birds. Let them 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 19 

cease their talk of the Cathedral of Rheims, and of 
all the churches, and all the castles in France which 
have shared its fate. These things do not interest 
us. Our troops must achieve victory. What else 
matters?" 

Prof. Wilhelm Kahl of Berlin in Deutsche Reden 
in Schwerer Zeit says, "When German soldiers had 
to seize the incendiary torch or proceed to the slaugh- 
ter of citizens, it was only in pursuance of the rights 
of war and for protection in need." Yet Kahl with 
nationalistic self-righteousness and with pride and 
fervor remarks, "We thank our German army that 
it has kept spotless the shield of humanity and chiv- 
alry" but with true Prussian inconsistency he sig- 
nificantly adds, "It is true we beheve that every 
bone of a German soldier, with his heroic heart and 
immortal soul, is worth more than a cathedral," and 
he implies, "or any foreign thing." It is the Ger- 
man belief that human obligations, if any, apply 
only to one's own — Teutonic — countrymen. The 
world-famous scientist. Prof. Ernst Haeckel of 
Jena, has the audacity in Ewigkeit Weltkriegsge- 
danken (1915) to say, "One single highly cultured 
German warrior, of those who are, alas! falling in 
thousands, represents a higher intellectual and 
moral life-value than hundreds of the raw children 
of nature whom Britain and France, Russia and 
Italy, oppose to them." All the product of state- 
controlled German schools, with their compulsory 
education under the direction of the militaristic and 
"divine right" dynasty are, of course, "highly cul- 
tured," and all foreigners are "raw children of na- 
ture" (naturmenschen) no matter what their in- 
herent wisdom, developed character or mind and 
soul-culture may be. 



20 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

The "religious" ideal in Germany with regard 
to atrocities is as devilishly pernicious as the so- 
called "philosophical" ideal. Pastor Traub says, 
"Our troops . . . recognize . . . that the 
truest compassion lies in taking the sternest 
measures;" and Pastor Baumgarten, the champion 
"spiritual" defender of the Lusitania outrage, says, 
"We are . . . compelled to carry on this war 
with a cruelty, a ruthlessness, and the employment 
of every imaginable device and measure unknown 
in any previous war." 

Dr. W. Fuchs, a literary physician of Germany, 
says that the "Holiest raptures of homage" of the 
German people "are paid to Titans of the Blood- 
deed." Fuchs speaks disparagingly of the value to 
Germany of geniuses such as Goethe, Schiller and 
Wagner, and says that Germans "cherish with the 
most ardent love" men like Barbarossa, the great 
Frederick, Bliicher and Bismarck, "the hard men 
of blood;" it is to the men who sacrificed and 
slaughtered the thousands and hundreds of thou- 
sands of human beings "that the soul of the 
German people goes out with tenderest affection 
and positively adoring gratitude." Again he says, 
that the thing most needed in Germany today is 
"Education to hate. Education to the estimation 
of hatred. Organization of hatred. Education to 
the desire for hatred. Let us abolish unripe and 
false shame before brutality and fanaticism. We 
must not hesitate to announce: 'To us is given faith, 
hope and hatred, but hatred is the greatest among 
them.' " 

Barbarian kultur that cannot appreciate the 
demands of humanity, cannot be expected to revere 
the glorious monuments of man's art and the prod- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 21 

net of his inspiration. That which Germans are 
not in sympathy with, they cannot enjoy; that 
which Prussianism did not produce, is of no im- 
portance and should be destroyed. The psycho- 
logical attitude is essentially barbaric; it is a com- 
bination of extreme tribal egoism with a subtle, 
unacknowledged feeling of angiy resentment and 
"sour grapes." It is interesting, at this time, to 
i-ecall the great Heine's prophecy concerning 
Russia. "The time will come when Russia will 
lean upon Germany — will lean with her hand on 
the club with which her brains have been beaten 
out." 

That unadulterated Prussianism exists in all its 
hideousness among the officers of the German army 
is well illustrated by the remarks of a captured 
Prussian officer, reported by the British under date 
of July 1st, 1917. This officer maintained that in 
Germany the aristocracy governed the masses 
(whom he termed "the fools"), whereas in Britain, 
France, America and democratic lands, the masses 
("the fools") governed the aristocracy, i. e., the 
born leaders and nobility. He affirmed that the 
talk in Germany about "the guilt of beginning the 
war" was for the German masses. "The published 
official statements are for German fools." The 
nobility, leaders and the army officers of Germany 
do not talk of guilt; "It was a glory and I claim it 
for Germany . . . The Prussian purpose is 
God. There is no other. Prussia will rend the veil 
of the temple, but she will destroy to create. 
Against Prussian might the world as it exists 
today will fall in ruins, but Prussia will build a 
better and more virile world in its place. Strength 
only will survive. The life of man is naturally a 



22 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

fight. The strongest in force and cunning will live 
. . . The old virtue was womanish; the new 
virtue is strength . . . Life is war — all of life 
that is healthy. Peace is only striving for mastery 
with immoral weapons. That is the law of nature. 
. . . The weakest must go under. They are 
the disease. The stronger will live ; and after that 
the stronger and stronger until there is perfect 
health . . . Those who do not care to fight in 
order that they may rule, are by their nature slaves, 
and they will be enslaved." 

In regard to the dynastically-controlled mihtary 
system of Prussia, with its Junker officers and the 
serfdom of the people through "authoritative" 
education, press and pulpits, Heine wrote in 
scornful disgiist, "The German is a slave who obeys 
his Kaiser without chains or lash — yea, even at a 
sign from his lord he falls upon his knees. For the 
terrible thing about the German's slavery is that 
it is his soul that is enslaved. The Germans wear 
spiritual chains forged by their lord and master, 
while black men wear only iron chains . . . 
The servility of the men of Berlin is in their souls 
. . . The Germans have no self-respect. They 
are the only men in the world who, as private 
soldiers, will stand still while an officer kicks them 
or bespatters them with mud. They receive the 
mud with smiles and stand expectantly, hat in 
hand." Contrast this picture with the words of the 
Brunswick (German) soldier who had been fight- 
ing for the mad German King, George III of 
England, against the colonists in America, 
"America is a fine, free country, it is worth fighting 
for; I know the difference by knowing my own; 
in my country, if the King says 'eat straw,' we eat 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 23 

straw." Thomas Paine, who recorded this observa- 
tion, remarked, "Government with insolence is 
despotism, but when contempt is added it becomes 
worse; and to pay for contempt (i. e., support the 
King, pay his bills and keep him on his throne) is 
the excess of slavery . . . God help that 
country . . . whose liberties are to be pro- 
tected by German principles of government." 

Baron Stein (1757-1831), called the feudal land- 
lords of Prussia — the Junkers — "heartless, 
wooden, half-educated people, fit only to be turned 
into corporals or calculating machines," but for all 
that, these men were the very backbone of the 
traditional Prussian monarchy. Bismarck, him- 
self a Brandenburg Junker, knew his fellow-Prus- 
sians well, and both classes, nobles and peasants, 
responded to his methods with the historic energy 
of Prussia under discipline. Bismarck once ob- 
served that the real Prussian "goes to meet certain 
death in the service with the simple words, 'At your 
orders,' but if he has to act on his own responsi- 
bility, dreads the criticism of his superior officer or 
of the world more than death, even to the extent 
of allowing his energy and correct judgment to be 
impaired by the fear of blame and reproof." The 
Prussian enjoys having some one else think for 
him and outline his actions, hence we see in Ger- 
many a form of official government, revolting to 
free men and all individuals who by nature feel and 
desire to enjoy some independence of thought and 
action. 

The self -adoration and infallibility of the Ger- 
man people, coupled with ambition, ferocity and 
hate, stand unequaled in the history of the world. 
Under a dominating dynasty of absolutism, which 



24 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

military success has created and developed, Ger- 
man patriotism has degenerated to a Pan-Ger- 
manism which is a debased, intolerant and restric- 
tive nationalism with world-wide ambitions, and 
the belief that the German people is a peculiar race, 
chosen by God, who has definitely associated Him- 
self with the German people to the exclusion of all 
other peoples. The belief is analogous to that of 
the old Arabian nomads of the desert — the primi- 
tive tribes of Israel; but only the earliest, unspiri- 
tual Yahwehism of tradition and the crude thoughts 
of a barbarous people have anything in common 
with Germanism. The ethical prophets of Judaism, 
upon whose inspired words the real religion of 
the Jews is based, vigorously denounced all those 
crude beliefs which form the foundation of the 
arrogant, tribal egoism and hateful intolerance of 
Teutonism. The "rehgion" of Germany is that 
of national advantage; in it there is no place for 
the spiritual, the idealistic or the philosophical. 
It has been said that Germany's depravity must 
be attributed to its repudiation of religion and the 
substitution of philosophy. This cannot be, for re- 
ligion is man's relation to liis God, and philosophy 
is the search after truth; God is truth, and the 
mind that searches for truth seeks God. 

The philosophers of Germany, like the philoso- 
phers of other countries, have always been essential- 
ly spiritual men, free from dwarfing and enslaving 
dogmatic beliefs, and possessing appetency for 
Cosmic truth. But Germany has repudiated her 
spiritual philosophers and adopted in her creed 
of nationalistic religion, not the truth as revealed 
by her greatest sons, but the opinions of her subsi- 
dized scholars, who, preferring honors and mate- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 25 

rial success to bitter persecution and exile, have sold 
their souls to the dynasty. 

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the Scotch- 
German philosopher of Konigsberg, whose book 
on Perpetual Peace is a classic, was humihated bj^ 
the Prussian King, and his philosophy has been 
bitterly and persistently condemned by the High 
Priests of Prussian militarism. Prof. Sombart has 
said, "We have no knowledge of pacifist utterances 
of representative Germans at any time. The 
wretched book of the aged Kant on Perpetual 
Peace ... is the only inglorious exception. 
Such utterances would indeed amount to a sin 
against the holy spirit of Germanism, which, from 
the depths of its heroism, cannot possibly arrive at 
any other view than a high appreciation of war." 
This well expresses the prevaihng Teutonic estima- 
tion of the great world-philosopher. Prince von 
Moltke said, "Eternal peace is only a dream and 
not even a beautiful dream," and Dr. Friedrich 
Lange, in Pure Germanisni, adds the real modern, 
Teutonic touch when he says, "No, certainly not 
beautiful, for a peace which could no longer look for- 
ward to war . . . would poison and rot away our 
inmost heart until we became loathsome to our- 
selves." Kant, who has influenced the thinkers 
of all lands, clashed fiercely with Frederick Wil- 
helm II, King of Prussia. After the first half 
of his book on Religion Within the Limits of 
Reason Alone had been published in Berlin, the 
printing of the second half was prohibited by the 
Government. Kant succeeded later in having the 
entire work pubhshed in Konigsberg; for this he 
was forbidden to write or lecture on any religious 



26 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

subject, and for years the expression of his thought 
was handicapped by German despotism. 

In his work on Perpetual Peace, the philoso- 
pher's first definitive article, covering the essentials 
which must be realized before permanent interna- 
tional peace can be obtained, — reads, "The civil 
Constitution of each state shall be repubhcan;" 
his second is, "The law of nations shall be founded 
on a federation of free states," and his third, "The 
rights of men, as citizens of the world, shall be 
limited to the conditions of universal hospitality." 
Kant denounced in vigorous terms all treaties that 
merely afforded a temporary suspension of hostil- 
ities and all that could be considered by any 
participant as a mere "scrap of paper;" he stood 
unflinchingly for the protection of weak states, for 
the abolition of large standing armies and con- 
traction of national debts in connection with 
foreign affairs ; he maintained that no state has the 
right to violently interfere with the Constitution 
of another, and he denounced international treach- 
ery, dishonest and secret diplomacy, spying, assas- 
sination and unscrupulous strategems in the affairs 
of nations. In substance, Kant denounced Prusso- 
German methods and Prusso-German ideals thor- 
oughly and completely. 

With these facts in mind, and knowing that 
Kant represented the very antithesis of all that 
the HohenzoUern dynasty, Pan-Germanism and 
militarism stand for today, the following hypo- 
critical statement of Wilhelm II, recently trans- 
mitted to the East Prussian Diet, is significant 
of the Machiavellianism of the German Emperor 
in relation to his own people: "The province of 
East Prussia is especially dear to my heart." (He 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 27 

permitted it to be overrun by the Russians early 
in the war and dehberately sacrificed the people 
"dear to his heart" on the altar of his egoistic 
vanity — for he must enter Paris before the end 
of September, 1914). "In this war it has made 
great sacrifices, and, therefore, it will gladly 
acknowledge the hand of God as now shown in 
the East" (the internal disruption of Russia with 
anarchy rampant). ''We owe our victory largely 
to the moral and spiritual treasures which the 
great philosopher of Konigsherg (Kant) he- 
stowed upon our people/' What contemptible 
sacrilege to liken the spiritual and pacifistic teach- 
ings of Kant to the diabolical treachery of the 
Germans in Russia! The chaotic internal condi- 
tions and the Reign of Terrorism in Russia, 
primarily caused by German treachery and Bol- 
sheviki disloyalty and gullibility, are described by 
Kaiser Wilhelm in a message to the Vice President 
of the Reichstag as "one of those greatest moments 
in which we (Germans) can reverently admire 
God's hand in history;" and he adds, "The German 
sword is our best protection," after having disinte- 
grated Russia by false hopes and promises, by 
the spreading of the gospel of "no annexation; 
no indemnity," only to repudiate it when he had 
succeeded in starting the Russian revolution and 
dividing the people among themselves. 



II 



Atavistic Kultur 

THE tyranny of Prussianism is perhaps best 
exemplified by the cruel treatment Germany 
has accorded her sons of genius, most of 
whom have suffered exile. Hoffmann ( 1798-1874 ) , 
the writer of the famous war song Deutschland 
iiher Alles, which modern Germans sing as they 
march into battle, was dismissed from a Professor- 
ship at Breslau, and branded a "degenerate son of 
the fatherland." For six years this loyal German 
patriot was hunted from one German state to 
another, because he had published a volume of 
songs which were not altogether pleasing to the 
Prussian dynasty. Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), 
one of the most notable of German patriots during 
the Napoleonic period, founded in 1811 the Turn- 
verein, or Athletic Association. During the period 
of political reaction following the successful out- 
come of the Prussian Wars of Liberation, every 
popular, democratic and voluntary organization 
came under the ban of the Hohenzollerns ; and 
Jahn was arrested in 1819, subjected to humilia- 
tion, and kept in prison for six years, on the 
grounds of being a dangerous democrat, because 
he had sought to benefit his people by the develop- 
ment of their physical bodies, and instil in their 
minds through competitive athletics, that spirit of 
chivalry which has tended to make the Anglo- 
Saxon peoples so great. Ernst Moritz Arndt 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 29 

(1769-1860) was a co-worker with the famous 
Fichte and, hke him, a pattern of true patriotism. 
He held the chair of history at Bonn University 
and was the author of much inspiring verse and 
song written in the cause of freedom, when Prussia 
was being humihated in the struggle with Napo- 
leon. Arndt was arrested by order of the Crown 
in 1820 because of his democratic views; he was 
forbidden to write or lecture, and was deprived of 
his professorship. 

Karl Gutzkow (1811-1878), the brilliant Ger- 
man author, was held by the Hohenzollerns and 
their satellites to have "too liberal ideas." In 1835 
his works were banned and he himself ignomin- 
iously thrown into prison. Fritz Renter (1810- 
1874), one of Germany's greatest literary geniuses 
of the nineteenth century, was even sentenced to 
death because of his democratic views and for his 
activities in the German Students' Association. 
The indignation of the people, however, was so 
intense and so freely expressed, that the sentence 
was commuted to thirty years' imprisonment; but 
after seven years in jail, he was restored to freedom. 

Borne, Laube, Freiligrath and Herwegh were 
the most gifted of many liberal or democratic 
Germans, who, during the political struggle of the 
people against the dynasty in the period of 1815- 
1848, had to endure exile and the banning in 
Germany of all their wTitings. In 1848 Rich- 
ard Wagner, because of his democratic beliefs, 
had to flee the country. Heinrich Heine after 
championing the cause of democracy and "Young 
Germany," had to leave his native land in 1831, 
and spend the remainder of his life in Paris. Kant, 
Fichte and many other brilHant North Germans 



30 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

resided among their countrymen for years in a 
condition of virtual mental imprisonment, resem- 
bling the church's incarceration of Galileo Galilei 
(1594) at his Villa in Italy, under the supervision 
of the Inquisition. In this connection it is interest- 
ing to recall the similarity of HohenzoUern (Prus- 
sian) and Hapsburg (Austrian) methods of com- 
batting democracy. The Viennese police under the 
regime of Metternich (1773-1859), once distin- 
guished themselves in phenomenal stupidity by their 
frenzied anti-democratic zeal, when they confiscated 
a new edition of Copernicus, because the title of his 
work — which was on Astronomy and not on polit- 
ical matters — began with the words ''De Revolu- 
tionibusf — the movement of the heavenly bodies 
being the "revolutions" referred to. 

Conditions in Teutonia under Prussian despot- 
ism have changed only in degi'ee — ^and then only 
under compulsion, — but not in substance, since the 
days of tyranny following the Wars of Liberation. 
Hauptmann, Germany's greatest living poet, was 
brutally reproached by the Crown Prince Wilhelm 
in 1913, and branded as "a degenerate son of the 
fatherland." Hauptmann had been commissioned 
to write a commemorative drama or Festspiel, to 
be performed at Breslau on the centenary of the 
battle of Leipzig — Napoleon's first overthrow. 
The play as produced dealt with the popular upris- 
ing of 1813 following Napoleon's retreat from 
Moscow, but as it apparently emphasized the peo- 
ples' thoughts, aspirations and acts, and did not 
sufficiently extol the HohenzoUerns and the Prus- 
sian Princes and Generals, the Crown Prince 
demanded that it be withdrawn as a democratic, 
and, therefore, pernicious and unpatriotic play. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 31 

Even Nietzsche hated his country and railed 
at her from over the Swiss border. Schopenhauer 
ridiculed her, but there has been no lack of scholars 
who could be bought, and the old depraved teaching 
of Machiavelli, coupled with the "philosophy" of 
Hegel and Max S timer, prepared the ground for 
the more modern exponents of kultur, the leitmotif 
of whose doctrine is Glorification of Violent 
Passion, 

Hegel (1770-1831) was a champion of war. He 
would have nothing to do with Kant's idea of a 
federation of nations formed in the interests of 
peace. The welfare of a state, he held, is its own 
highest law; and he refused to believe that this 
welfare was to be sought in an international peace. 
Hegel was contaminated with Napoleonism; he 
lived in an age when all power and order seemed 
to lie with the sword, and he became an ardent 
Prussian opportunist. Like Moltke, Hegel pro- 
fessed to see in war an educative instrument which 
developed virtues in nations and made the sep- 
arate interests cohesive and conscious of the benefits 
and obligations of citizenship. War, he maintained, 
left a nation always stronger than it was before, 
buried deep the causes of internal dissension and 
consolidated the internal power of the state. 
Hegel's panegyric of the state as "an absolutely 
complete, ethical organism, the be-all and the end- 
all of every one's education" gradually predomi- 
nated over the struggling, German, democratic 
spirit, and finally became the cornerstone of Ger- 
man belief and kultur, when Bismarck, in the inter- 
ests of the Hohenzollerns, effectively throttled indi- 
vidual liberty in Prussia. 

The predominating Teutonic "ideals" respon- 



32 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

sible for German self-laudation and contempt for 
the rest of the world, are found in the Trinity of 
German worship: super-king, super-state and 
super-race. It has been said that the major 
prophets of this German spirit of unrestrained 
and unashamed arrogance and exclusiveness, are 
"Treitschke, the prophet of tribalism, Nietzsche 
of ruthlessness, and Bernhardi of ambition." But 
Machiavelli, Hegel and S timer sowed the seed 
of the rank weed of German "immoralism" which 
seems to have killed the religious, ethical and hu- 
mane spirit of the land. 

Max Stirner, the German philosopher of arro- 
gant egoism (1806-1856; real name Kaspar 
Schmidt), wrote "What does right matter to me? 
I have no need of it. What I can acquire by 
force, that I possess and enjoy; what I cannot 
obtain I renounce, and I set up no pretensions to 
indefeasible right. I have the right to do what 
I have the power to do." More recently Bern- 
hardi has vigorously championed the Prussian 
doctrine that "Might is Right," for in Germany 
and the Next War (1912) we read, "Might is the 
supreme right, and the dispute as to what is right 
is decided by the arbitrament of war. War gives 
a biologically just decision. . . . The law of 
the strong holds good everywhere. . . . Right 
is rejected so far only as it is compatible with 
advantage." Adolf Grabowsky, a modern Ger- 
man writer on political subjects, has said, "The 
will to world-power has no limit." Germany will 
take all that she has the physical, i. e., militaristic, 
power to take, and will hold all that she has the 
physical power to hold. Every increase of power 
is an increased menace to the peace-loving world. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 33 

Right does not enter into the consideration. Ger- 
man "immoralism" deifies brute force, and urges 
an unhmited ambition with no restriction on 
avarice and lust; there can, therefore, be no re- 
straint placed on that cruel, Satanic brute power 
which seeks to acquire at the expense of the physi- 
cally weaker, the more ethical, the more human and 
the more spiritual. 

Dr. Carl Peters, one of the founders of the Pan- 
German League, recently said, "Not to live and let 
live, but to live and direct the lives of others, that 
is power," and after this definition of power, which 
is despotic, dynastic and positively anti-democratic, 
he refers to "refined power" as that which pro- 
duces the subjugation of nations and peoples — pro- 
vided, of course, that Germany is the conqueror. 
Power, according to Peters, is physical or brute 
power, and when actuated by avarice on the part of 
the leaders and expressed by stupid ignorance on 
the part of the masses, is "refined power," and the 
expression of the divine will, provided that it be 
victoriously exercised by God's exclusive and only 
enlightened race — the Germans. 

The Bernhardi-Reventlow-Keim cult of modern 
Pan-Germanism, under the militant patronage of 
the Crown Prince, has spread its malignant poison 
throughout the length and breadth of Germany. It 
is not based merely on the policy of the Prussian 
militant triumvirate of Bismarck, Moltke and Roon, 
which founded the Prussian-dominated German 
Empire, but it goes far back to the military and un- 
scrupulous, grasping Hohenzollerns of the Mark 
of Brandenburg, whose policy, expressed in the per- 
son of Frederick II (the Great), made the arro- 
gant, lustful kingdom of Prussia a European men- 



34 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ace. Mirabeau expressed the opinion of his century 
when he said, "War is Prussia's national industry." 

Bernhardi (born 1849) is a General of Cavalry, 
and has been a Departmental Chief of the General 
Staff; Keim (born 1845) is also a German Gen- 
eral, and Reventlow (born 1869) is a wi'iter on 
military and naval matters, and is very close to 
Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. This trio give definite 
expression to the yearnings and aspirations of the 
military and Pan-Germanists of Teutonia, and 
their thoughts, arguments and general beliefs are 
founded upon Prussian military tradition and Na- 
poleonism, — the Corsican upstart himself being 
indebted to Germans, such as Frederick the Great, 
and Attila the Hun, for most of his basic ideas of 
conquest and European domination. 

Within the last few decades Germany has devel- 
oped what is virtually a religion of war. The Intel- 
lectuals have built a "philosophy" to explain it, and 
the militarists have clearly stated in a practical, 
understandable way what it stands for, and what it 
aspires to attain. The prophet of the plain-spoken 
Bernhardi-Reventlow-Keim cult was Karl von 
Clausewitz (1780-1831), the Prussian General and 
military writer; he was the pupil of Scharnhorst, 
fought against Napoleon, was captured at Jena in 
1806 and held as a prisoner of war for two years. 
Clausewitz was a true Prussian and regarded Na- 
poleonic methods as the basis, not merely of suc- 
cessful war, but of all sound statesmanship. To 
Clausewitz, war was merely "a continuation of pol- 
icy" to be invoked whenever expedient, and this 
absolutely without regard to honor, justice, moral 
right or legitimate cause. To covet and abstain 
from acquiring, when one has physical power to 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 35 

take, was in the affairs of nations, not virtue, but 
contemptible weakness. 

The mihtant and Machiavellian methods by 
which the Prussian power was developed and Ger- 
man union achieved between 1864 and 1871, coupled 
with the unprecedented prosperity enjoyed by the 
nation since that time, have caused many modern 
Germans to believe in the ancient Prussian and 
Napoleonic principles of physical force and treach- 
ery, and to establish the readily understandable 
"wisdom" of Clausewitz, the Prussian soldier, above 
all other wisdoms. Under Hohenzollern direction, 
the Prussian-Napoleonic-Clausewitz idea has been 
once more thoroughly Prussianized and national- 
ized; it has been developed and fortified by histor- 
ical, scientific and pseudo-philosophical arguments, 
and the entire intellectual life of Germany has been 
impregnated with its teachings. An investigator 
has found that during recent years an annual aver- 
age of seven hundred books, dealing with war, have 
been published in Germany. While the Anglo-Saxon 
and Latin peoples have been working toward peace 
and international arbitration, Germany has been 
teaching the religion of war and physical force, and 
the thoughts and aspirations of the people, under 
the direction of the dynasty, have been turned 
toward a world-conquest through military power. 

The effect of the devilish Prussian-militaristic 
teachings has told decisively upon the masses of the 
German nation, and there has been growing a strong 
popular approval of the doctrine that if neighbor- 
nations do not peaceably admit the paramountcy 
of Germany in Europe, they must be compelled to 
do so by force. How much this pernicious and es- 
sentially dynastic, Hohenzollern doctrine has spread 



36 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

of late years may be gathered from Prof. Otfried 
Nippold's Der Deutsche Chauvinismus (1913): 
"Hand in hand with outspoken hostihty to foreign 
countries are enjoined a one-sided exaltation of 
war and a war mania . . . there is much irre- 
sponsible agitation against other states . . . and 
much frivolous incitement to war. . . . War is 
pictured, not as a possibility that may occur, but as 
a necessity that must come, and the sooner the bet- 
ter. The quintessence of the teachings of the organ- 
izations of Prusso-German Chauvinism ... is 
always the same; — A European war is not merely 
an eventuality for which we must prepare, but a 
necessity for which we should, in the interest of the 
German nation, rejoice. From this dogma it is only 
a step to the next maxim, which is so dear to the 
hearts of the belligerent, political generals — the 
maxim of . . . so-called preventive war. If war 
has to come (and it must positively come) , then let 
it come at the moment most favorable to us. In 
other words, do not let us wait until a formal cause 
for war occurs, but let us strike when it best suits 
us, and above all let us strike soon." 

The name of Nietzsche (1844-1900) is so closely 
associated with the aggressive Prusso-German spirit 
of brutal force, that the present war has even been 
termed "The Euro-Nietzschean War." Nietzsche 
was a wild, unbalanced seer, who went mad in 1888. 
He was an extremist, but the totality of his teach- 
ings was not the Machiavellian-Prussianism as ex- 
pressed today by the Hohenzollern-driven Germans. 
Nietzsche was a passionate and unsparing critic of 
the Prusso-Germans, and he denounced the hultur 
of modern Germany as the arch-enemy of a new 
aristocracy which he foreshadowed in the visions 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 37 

of the superman. Nietzsche, strange as it may- 
seem, was not interested in physical wars, but in a 
sort of distorted "spiritual" struggle. He was wont 
to call himself, not a good German, but "a good 
European," and his idea of kultur, with all its limi- 
tations and error, he claimed transcended national 
boundaries, and looked only to the production of 
the superman — the highest type among all peoples. 

Nietzsche's "philosophy" at times is crude read- 
ing, barbaric and inhuman, but his works in toto 
give one an entirely different impression of his 
views and beliefs, than isolated extracts. It is, how- 
ever, a fact that the Prussian spirit has, to a great 
extent, been crystalized around certain sweeping 
statements of Nietzsche, although the wild and pas- 
sionate seer would turn in his grave at the claims 
which German kultur, in gross ignorance, is parad- 
ing with such fierce and intense conviction before 
the civilized world today. Nietzsche, who has tra- 
vestied Darwinism, is known by his admiring Teu- 
tonic disciples as "The Philosopher of the Will to 
Power, and of Immoralism." Nietzsche was no 
lover of despotic Prussia and its ways, yet hating as 
he did her policy of mental serfdom and dynastic 
tyranny, he became her "prophet of the mailed fist," 
and one of her greatest apostles to preach the Gos- 
pel of Pride and Might; and by so doing, he fed 
fuel to the consuming militaristic flame, so destruc- 
tive of morals and the finer attributes of humanity. 

According to Nietzsche, good is whatever con- 
duces to the increase of one's power, evil is what- 
ever tends to diminish it. "Him whom ye do not 
teach to fly, teach — how to fall quicker." There is 
no room in life for the frail; the weak must be 
crushed and the sooner the better. The following 



38 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

quotation from Nietzsche's work on A Genealogy 
of Morals is a German classic. "These men (Teu- 
tonic supermen) who are strictly kept within 
bounds by good manners . . . who, in their be- 
havior to one another, show themselves so inventive 
in consideration, self-control, delicacy, loyalty, pride 
and friendship — these very men are, to the outside 
world, to things foreign and to foreign countries, 
little better than so many uncaged beasts of prey. 
Here they enjoy liberty from all social restraint 
. . . . and become rejoicing monsters, who go 
their way, after a hideous sequence of murder, con- 
flagi'ation, violation, torture, with as much gaiety 
and equanimity as if they had merelj^ taken part in 
some student gambols . . . Deep in the nature 
of these noble races there lurks unmistakably the 
beast of prey, the blond beast, lustfully roving in 
search of booty and victory." 

In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche says, "We 
. . . believe that (man's) will to life had to be 
intensified into unconditional will to power; we hold 
that hardness, slaverj^ danger in the street and in 
the heart, secrecy, stoicism, arts of temptation and 
deviltry of all kinds; that everything evil, terrible, 
tyrannical, wild-beast-like and serpent-hke in man, 
contributes to the elevation of a species, just as 
much as its opposite — and in saying this we do not 
even say enough." That which is admittedly evil 
must therefore be nurtured and even deified; that 
which is animal passion, — avarice, lust and hatred, 
— contribute as much to the elevation of man as 
altruism, self-sacrifice, human love and spiritual 
loyalty. Nietzsche also says in The Joyous Wisdom 
"Hatred delights in mischief, rapacity and ambi- 
tion, and whatever else is called evil, belongs to the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 39 

marvelous economy of the conservation of the race. 
. . . In reality the evil impulses are just in as 
high a degree expedient, indispensable and conserv- 
ative of the species as the good," and in Zarathustra 
— Of Manly Prudence — he says, "Verily, ye good 
and just, much in you is laughable. ... I guess 
that you will call my superman 'devil.' " 

Professor Sombart expresses the profane thought 
of Pan-Germanism with a sacrilege that could 
never be encountered outside the realm of Teutonia, 
"Nietzsche was but the last of the . . . seers 
who, coming down from the heights of heaven, 
brought to us the tidings that there should be born 
from us the Son of God, whom in his language he 
called the Superman." The "Blond Beast"— The 
"Superman"— The "Son of God"— The Savior of 
the World. This illustration of German psychol- 
ogy is the acme of irreligious blasphemy and mental 
depravity. 

According to Nietzsche, pity is merely the cow- 
ard's acknowledgment of his weakness. For only 
inasmuch as man is devoid of fortitude in bearing 
his own sufferings, is he unable to contemplate with 
equanimity the sufferings of his fellow creatures. 
Since religion enjoins compassion with all forms of 
human misery, Germanism must make war on re- 
ligion. "Be hard," says Nietzsche, "the noblest only 
is perfectly hard," and he compares the charcoal 
with the diamond. If you have learned calmly to 
see others sufJ'er, you are yourself able to endure 
distress with manly composure. "I warn you 
against pity ; for it will one day arise a heavy cloud 
for men." It is only a step from indifference to the 
sufferings of others, to a desire to exploit them and 
even inflict pain and sorrow upon one's neighbors 



40 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

for the sake of personal or national gain. "Ye 
would perchance abolish suffering," exclaims Nietz- 
sche, "and we, — it seems that we would rather have 
it even greater and worse than it has ever been." 

Germany's territorial ambitions and her conduct 
as a conqueror are now well known. In 1905, in 
A Pan-German Germany, Reimer stated the Teu- 
tonic attitude, "Do small nations stand in the way 
of our expansion or do they not? In the latter case, 
let them develop as their nature prescribes; in the 
former case, it would be folly to spare them, for they 
would be like a wedge in our flesh, which we refrain 
from extracting only for their own sake. If we find 
ourselves forced to break up the historical form of a 
nation, we ought not to have any moral scruples or 
to think ourselves inhuman." In another chapter 
of the same book on the subject of Humanity, this 
apostle of Teutonic ruthlessness endeavors to prove 
that, whereas humanity may be all very well for 
inferior races, Germanism cannot be hampered by 
its restraints. In Grossdeutscliland, Tannenberg 
says, "A policy of sentiment is folly. Enthusiasm 
for humanity is idiocy . . . riglit and wrong are 
notions needed in civil life only." And Carl Peters 
says, "It is foolish to talk of the rights of others; 
it is foolish to speak of a justice that should hinder 
us from doing to others what we do not ourselves 
wish to suffer from them." 

The intolerance and self-sufficient bigotry of the 
Germans in regard to a "prisoner province" is well 
illustrated by Treitschke's comment in regard to the 
forcibly annexed people of Alsace-Lorraine, "We 
Germans, who know both Germany and France, 
know what suits the Alsatians far better than that 
miserable people know themselves . . . We wish 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 41 

to restore to them, against their will, their own real 
self." How different is this intolerant and inhu- 
man spirit from that expressed in the report that 
Carnot laid before the French Government in re- 
gard to the incorporation of Monaco: — "It is the 
inalienable right of every nation to live apart from 
others, if it so pleases, or, for the vindication of 
their common interests, to unite with others, if such 
be its desire. We, French, who know no other sov- 
ereigns save the people themselves, have fraternity 
and not lordship as our sj^stem. We worship the 
principle that every nation, be the territory it occu- 
pies ever so small, is absolute master in its own 
house, and must, as regards its rights, be treated as 
equal with the greatest; and that nobody can justi- 
fiably violate its independence, unless its own is 
manifestly imperiled." This is a forecast of what 
international law will be, when djmasties are over- 
thrown and governments are truly democratic. It 
is founded on the fundamental principle of univer- 
sal justice and universal loyalty. Today it seems 
like a hazy ideal; before long it will be an accom- 
plished fact, and Germany is unconsciously and 
certainly unintentionally, hastening the advent of 
international justice and international peace. 

We read in the Hebrew scriptures (Joshua 9) 
that the chosen people of Yahweh who had made 
peace with certain peoples, instead of annihilating 
them, as was their usual custom, reluctantlj^ honored 
their peace agreement, the princes of Israel saying, 
"Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and 
drawers of water unto all the congregation," i. e., 
slaves to the Israelites, whose militarism had awed 
the hearts of pacifistic peoples. Professor Rudolph 
Huch in Tdgliche Rundschau shows the psycholog- 



42 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ical similarity between the modern German "Intel- 
lectual Bodyguard" of the dynasty, and that of the 
primitive Israelites in their era of barbarism, prior 
to the advent of the ethical prophets: — "There are 
races which are incapable of attaining a high hu- 
manity, incapable of influencing the world. Such 
nations are destined to hew wood and draw water 
for dominant nations. If they cannot fill this in- 
ferior office, they must perish." In other words, 
Belgium, Poland, Servia, etc., and before long Hol- 
land, Denmark, etc., must choose between serfdom 
and extermination. But the German conception of 
peoples destined to be "hewers of wood and draw- 
ers of water" is not limited to small or relatively 
weak nations. Professor Huch denoimces Anglo- 
Saxon and Latin peoples. He calls the British 
"false, cruel and criminal," and says that the French 
have proven themselves to be barbarians. "I, for 
my part, am convinced that the French are doomed 
to perdition" (i. e., to become a subject-race — hew- 
ers of wood and drawers of water — )"and I feel 
myself free of everj^ emotion of regret." Lud^vig 
Woltmann said, "The German race is called to 
bind the earth under its control, to exploit the nat- 
ural resources and the physical powers of man, to 
use the passive races in subordinate capacity for the 
development of its kultur," and an East Prussian 
educator boldly said, (July, 1917) "The whole his- 
tory of the world is neither more nor less than a 
preparation for the time when it shall please God 
to allow the affairs of the universe to be in German 
hands." 

Treitschke, one of the most influential of Ger- 
many's historical and political thinkers and named 
by Kaiser Wilhelm II "Our greatest national his- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 43 

torian," in Politics wrote of the necessity of Ger- 
manizing certain territories, but in regard to other 
lands to be subjugated he says, "No other course is 
open to us but to keep the subject-race in as un- 
civihzed a condition as possible, and thus prevent 
them from becoming a danger to their conquerors." 
Reimer ridicules the idea of a people deserving 
peace and developing a spirit of love and sympathy 
for mankind; all such talk, he affirms, "must re- 
main nothing but chatter." Vierordt gives the mes- 
sage of nationahstic Germany to the world in the 
following hateful words, void of all religion and 
humanity: — "O Germany, hate now! Arm thyself 
in steel and pierce with thy bayonet the heart of 
every foe; no prisoners! Lock all their lips in 
silence; turn our neighbors' lands into desert." 
Could anything be more diabolical, or more pro- 
phetic, or more peculiarly German ? Pastor Lahusen 
said, "We will fight without scruple and employ all 
means of destruction however terrible they may be," 
and Pastor Baumgarten, in an address on The Ser- 
mon on the Mount, shows the hopelessness of the 
German national mind in the realm of ethics, when 
he said, "Whoever cannot prevail upon himself to 
approve from the bottom of his heart the sinking 
of the Lusitania . . . and give himself up to hon- 
est delight at this victorious exploit of German de- 
fensive power, — him we judge to be no true Ger- 
man." 

We have become a nation of wrath ; we think only of the 
war. 45. * * 

We execute God Almighty's will, and the edicts of His 

justice, 
We will fulfil, imbued with holy rage, in vengeance upon 

the ungodly. 



44 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

God calls us to murderous battles, even if worlds should 

thereby fall to ruins. 

* * * 

We are woven together like the chastening lash of war; 

we flame aloft like the lightning; 
Like gardens of roses our wounds blossom at the Gate of 

Heaven. 
We thank thee, Lord God. Thy wrathful call obliterates 

our sinful nature; 
With thine iron rod we smite all our enemies in the face." 

— F. Philippi. 

The effect of German "immoralism" expressed 
by Pan- Germanism has nmnbed the soul of a great 
people, jDerverted their national and individualistic 
conscience and plunged the empire into a condition 
of moral anarchy. German statesmen have shown 
themselves as diabolically ruthless as the military 
leaders and the soldiery. German policy has de- 
generated to a maze of contradictions, absolutely 
void of either consistency or good faith. German 
officialdom has now openly and completely accepted 
the pernicious doctrine that the state is above all 
law, and is therefore free from all moral restraints. 

One of the few Germans who has had sufficient 
intelligence and courage to oppose Prussian meth- 
ods, is Dr. Wilhelm Miihlon, a scholar and success- 
ful business man, and, for several years prior to 
1915, a Director of Krupps. Commenting, soon 
after the outbreak of the war, on the perversion of 
moral values to which the German mind has become 
so hardened, Miihlon wrote, "Today some artifice 
must be resorted to in order that the sheep 
herded within the German fold shall contentedly be 
converted into an army of elephants, whose feet are 
to trample down every living thing beyond our bor- 
ders. This training is administered in many ways. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 45 

They tell the people that state morahty and private 
morality operate and must operate in two entirely 
different spheres. At the same time an example 
of the greatest piety is set. From the balconies of 
palaces, from all the offices of ministries, from all 
army quarters and camps, we have in the past few 
weeks been continually admonished to stream into 
the churches, to throw ourselves on our knees, and 
to invoke a righteous God, who guides our cause 
and protects us, the attacked and the persecuted ; to 
praise the German God who will lead us victori- 
ously over the entire world, because He can find 
no better use for the garden of His creation than 
that we should fill it with our military camp-fires. 
I hope there are many who do not kneel and who 
do not pray — at least to such a God and for such 
things. Better to sit quietly and meditate, and to 
manifest later in self-deliberation the power and 
the faith which we now manifest in slavery. Dis- 
gusting hypocrisy and deceit, contempt for the peo- 
ple and an uneasy criminal conscience manifest them- 
selves in this official piety. It has no other purpose 
than the sanctification of falsehood, the adoration 
of brutality, the deification of Wilhelm II." 

Immoralism, the pseudo-philosophy of the Ger- 
man leaders of today, is naturally void of both 
honor and intellectual self-respect, and the whole 
structure of Prussian-inspired Pan-Germanism is 
based on guile, falsehood and perfidy, void of all 
real loyalty and is therefore doomed to destruction. 

Miihlon wrote in his diary on August 29th, 1914, 
that Prussia can never bring peace to Europe. "The 
Prussia of today can only sow a deeper hate among 
the European peoples and aggravate that hate into 
an obsession. She will steal everything — everything 



46 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

she can lay her hands on — and will hold fast to it. 
She will give away only what she attaches no im- 
portance to, and will make such gifts only at the 
expense of others. She will never take her foot 
off the neck of the conquered. She will force every 
alien civilization to reverence her barbarity. She 
believes only in the strong fist at home and abroad. 
She recognizes no power on earth but the power of 
compulsion." Under date of August 25th, 1914, 
Miihlon wrote, "The Germans have faith in their 
numerical superiority and their better military 
equipment. They do not believe, in fact, that they 
will win through bravery, strength, skill, or any 
other special moral quality. They are satisfied as 
soon as thejr may hope to have superior numbers 
... It does not occur to them to be ashamed of 
their great superiority in numbers, when they use it 
to crush a weak opponent like Belgium. They cele- 
brate their achievements the more loudly and joy- 
ously, the greater their assurance is of overwhelm- 
ing strength. They are like barbarians who become 
intoxicated with victory, even if it has been achieved 
at the expense of defenseless opponents. With wild 
hurrahs they are already distributing in their tents 
the treasures and the captives taken as booty. But 
if a strong, courageous enemy of whose approach 
in their hour of victory they had had no warning, 
should surprise them, they would again take hasty 
flight to their swamps and forests and would be as 
content with these as they were formerly eager to 
roam all over the earth, mere vagrants, without any 
understanding of distances or world-relationship." 
And again, "With these raging barbarians (Prusso- 
Germans) progress and humanity count for noth- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 47 

ing any more. Brutal force, not intellect; men 
(quantity), not quality are the deciding factors." 

Under date of August 31st, 1914, Miihlon wrote, 
"As long as the aims and ends of politics are not at 
one with the plain fundamentals of general human 
morals, so long will statesmanship remain a crimi- 
nal trade. Today the dogma obtains with all the 
servants of the state that their highest duty is to be 
useful to the state. This obligation sanctifies all 
means. Perfidy, lying, forgery, deception, treach- 
ery, corruption and murder are no longer loathed 
where the state is concerned. But whence do we 
derive the right to set the state to which we belong 
above other states and peoples, and to consider 
its interests superior to the clearest moral com- 
mands? Are we first of all human beings? Have 
we not the same duty to perform to all men? The 
state idea in its present-day form separates men 
artificially from one another and creates all sorts of 
hateful distinctions between them. The modern 
state wishes its subjects to be, in relation to other 
peoples, brutal, covetous, envious, obtuse and big- 
oted. . . . If we want to restore to mankind its 
most essential basis — which is mutual confidence — 
we must, above all things, combat the idea that there 
may be a different morality for different individuals 
or for different human institutions. Equality in 
this respect must be the rule. If states lose thereby 
in sharpness and individuality of outline, it will be 
all the better for the world. . . . You cannot ap- 
peal to the sense of justice of the people when you 
ask it to defend the unrighteous conduct of the 
state." 

William L. McPherson well says that Miihlon, 
a real German patriot, in his diary written July- 



48 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

November, 1914, has indicted the whole pohtical, 
social and moral structure of modern Germany. 
"He has arraigned its governmental system repres- 
sive of individualism, of freedom of speech and inde- 
pendence of thought ; its abhorrent conception of a 
state superior to human feelings and moral laws; 
its deliberate policj^ of military aggrandizement ; its 
paganism ; the greed and arrogance of German in- 
dustrialism ; the sterility of German intellectualism ; 
the degradation of the German press; the servility 
and hypocrisy of German social life — 'in short, the 
many-sided degeneration of the German character." 

Germany is cursed today by its intolerant and 
exclusive nationalism. Its people are patriotic, but 
their loyalty is restricted to country, and their Pan- 
German ideals have been forced into their minds 
and kept there by the state through every conceiv- 
able means of education and propaganda. The case 
of Germany is a case for an alienist, for the minds 
of the people have been guided, guarded and forced 
by external authority into an irresponsible condi- 
tion. They are not an uncivilized people, but are 
obsessed with a "philosophy" of scientific savagery; 
in their personal relations they are as human as 
many other great peoples, but collectively, acting 
as a state, they suffer with a tragic mania analogous 
to those mental epidemics of the Middle Ages when 
fanaticism, usually religious, sent entire communi- 
ties into various forms of madness. It has been well 
said, "Prussia puts its uniform not only on German 
bodies but on their brains. China built a stone wall ; 
Germany a wall of the mind." 

The German Intellectuals — professors, teachers, 
writers and pastors, glibly repeat with the unvarj- 
ing monotony of enfettered and benumbed minds. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 49 

the creeds and confessions of faith of Hohenzollern- 
ism. Prussianism is analogous in the secular sphere 
to the sacerdotalism of the days of irreligious super- 
stition, and the written or spoken words of Prusso- 
German Intellectuals are merely the incantations 
of a mentally stupefied corps of dynastic serfs who 
blindly obey their lord and master, and with atro- 
phied minds or with time-serving unscrupulousness, 
repeat in their sphere of influence as "authorities," 
the messages which they have received from their 
Emperor — the anointed of God. 

The German writer of J' Accuse! has well said, 
"As the dervishes in the East, for hours at a time, 
utter the same formulae of prayer and go through 
the same contortions . . . until at last they fall 
down foaming at the mouth and overpowered, so 
now we have seen the learned men of Germany re- 
peating for months (years) past the same patriotic 
litanies, the same unproved assertions — assertions 
of which the contrary is proved. . . . They over- 
power themselves with their own phrases, until they 
foam at the mouth from sheer patriotism, and fall 
down in adoration of themselves. But they will in 
time awake from their stupefaction and the wild in- 
toxication will be followed by the terrible discom- 
fort of returning sobriety." 

The Utopia of Prussianism lies on the sea of 
death ; if a nation devoted to the false ideal does not 
save itself by the promptings of the soul of its peo- 
ple, it is doomed to utter extinction. The German 
people alone can save themselves; the steady driv- 
ing and subtle application of authoritative thought 
for many decades, have made a people so politically 
docile and amazingly credulous that it will take a 
severe mental shock to arouse them from their ob- 
session and convince them of their folly. 



III. 



The Hohenzollern Curse 

PRINCE VON BULOW well defined the 
aspirations of HohenzoUernism when he said, 
"The Kaiser first in Prussia, Prussia first in 
Germany, and Germany first in the world." This 
is the sort of subtle, authoritative suggestion that 
has obsessed and poisoned German minds. A na- 
tionalism founded upon militarism and supported 
by the army, has created an autocracy of the sword 
that makes the despot possible. National arrogance 
and intolerance, the result of a religion of national- 
ism and a philosophy of force, have numbed the 
soul of a people and entrusted the well-being of a 
great nation to a fanatical advocate of blood and 
iron, who stands for "War, conquest, and world 
dominion" and claims the "divine right" to rule and 
kill. 

Pan-Germanism has made militaristic Germany 
possible, and the army keeps the Kaiser on his 
bloody throne. When Wilhelm II ascended the 
throne (July 15th, 1888) he first addressed a proc- 
lamation to his army in which he said, "We belong 
together, I and my army, so we were born together, 
and so will we firmly and inseparably hold fast to 
one another, whether it is God's will to give us 
peace or storm." In Germany everything is mobil- 
ized, even religion, so the Kaiser becomes the mouth- 
piece and instrument of God. "We Hohenzollerns 
take our crown from God alone. . . . The spirit 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 51 

of the Lord has descended upon me because I am 
Emperor of the Germans. I am the instrument of 
the Almighty ! I am His sword, His agent. . . . 
Woe and death to all those who shall oppose my 
will! Woe and death to those who do not believe 
in my mission! . . . Let them perish, all the 
enemies of the German people! God demands 
their destruction! God, who by my mouth, bids 
you (the army) do His will." Thus speaks the 
guiding spirit in the most monstrous crime of all 
ages. Thus speaks the despot whose bloody hands 
are reaching for the throat of democracy, and who 
has the effrontery and depravity to connect God's 
name with the unrestrained passion and ambition 
of the Blond Beast of Prussia. 

This bombastic monarch of a warrior dynasty, 
breathing fire and threatening with blood and iron, 
is the latest of a line of militaristic emperors, every 
one of whom, since Frederick Wilhelm (1640-1688) 
first organized the army, has died in his comfortable 
bed. Since the days of Frederick the Great, these 
Hohenzollerns, who have caused the death of mil- 
lions of innocent men — victims of their ruthless 
avarice and diabolical ambitions, have fought by 
proxy and in positions of absolute safety, for, where- 
as the lives of all other men are of no importance, 
their own lives are sacred — to themselves. The 
German Crown Prince, Wilhelm, who talks of "a 
place in the sun" and urges as a motto pro patria et 
glotia, said in an address to his Danzig Hussars, 
"It is possible for me to be separated from you, but 
my heart and my spirit remain yours. If, some day, 
the Emperor calls and the bugle sounds the 'charge,' 
then I ask you to think of him whose most ardent 
wish it has always been to be allowed to share at 



52 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

your side this supreme moment of a soldier's happi- 
ness." The bugle sounded. At last donnerwetter! 
it became the real thing, — the fight that the fire- 
eating Crown Prince, the undisputed leader of the 
German Chauvinists, desired above all things in the 
world. The Deathshead Hussars charged into 
death and were mown down like stalks of corn. 
"But where," a German writer has asked, "was the 
gallant royal Colonel of cavalry? Why did he, 
who still today wears the effective uniform of his 
hussars, not put himself at their head with a 'hur- 
rah,' against the enemy? Why did he allow to pass 
ungarnered the 'supreme moment of a soldier's 
happiness?' " Prince Wilhelm has not only kept 
himself in a place of safety, far in the rear, but with 
peculiarly dynastic egoism, has handicapped the 
German armies by his bad generalship. If he had 
not been the Emperor's son, he would long ago have 
been humiliated and removed from his command for 
incompetency. 

The Hohenzollerns are medieval in their ideas of 
war, with this exception, that in medieval times 
kings led their armies, — Noblesse oblige! History 
gives a long and impressive list of kings slain in bat- 
tle: Hardrada, of Norway, at Stamford bridge, 
1066; Harold of England, at Hastings, 1066; Rich- 
ard I, of England, besieging the castle of Chalus- 
Chabrol, 1199; John, of Bohemia, at Crecy in 
Picardy, 1346; Richard III, of England, at Bos- 
worth Field, 1485; James IV, of Scotland, at Flod- 
den Field, 1513; Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, 
at Liitzen, 1632; Charles XII, of Sweden, at the 
siege of the Fortress of Friedrichshall, 1718; etc., 
etc. The Hohenzollerns must be credited with that 
degree of Prusso-German modernity which moves 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 53 

them to exercise their royal prerogative and stay- 
behind in battle in a place of safety, while urging 
their men forward to death. The HohenzoUern 
doctrine of self-preservation is followed by the Prus- 
sian Junkers, and, therefore, by officers of the Im- 
perial German Army; whereas the officers of most 
national armies lead their men to battle, German 
officers keep in the rear of their forces and drive 
their men to fight ; the difference is significant. 

Pastor Drysander wired from Switzerland asking 
the German Emperor for a statement of the casual- 
ties sustained by the members of the Imperial fam- 
ily in the great war ; he stated that practically every 
family in Germany had lost some or many of their 
men and youths, and he would like to know in com- 
parison, how the ruling house of the land, and par- 
ticularly the Kaiser and his immediate family of 
six sons had fared. Of course Pastor Drysander 
is still waiting for a reply. An American wag has 
said that, for actual fighting purposes, all dynasties 
are drafted in Class 23Z. Let the record stand and 
mark the rating hereafter, not only in military but 
in political life. If dynasties continue to maintain 
their thrones, and if at some future time "their su- 
perior blueblood should boil red in a combat," then 
it is to be hoped that the people will have the wis- 
dom to appreciate the philosophy of the old poem, 

"If Kings would show their might 
Let those who make the quarrel 
Be the only ones to fight." 

With psychological subtlety. Kaiser Wilhelm 
uses the possessive pronoun of the first person 
whenever he refers to any of the armed forces of 
Germany, and he reiterates on every possible occa- 



54 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

sion that the prime quahty of a German soldier, or 
sailor of the fleet, must be loyalty to his "sacred" 
person, with unconditional, blind and unfaltering 
obedience ; and this not only in war but in times of 
peace, and not only in matters pertaining to the 
foreigner but also in the event of internal emer- 
gencies. The German army is a royal and imperial 
body-guard, an instrument to safeguard the dynasty 
of the Hohenzollerns, and a weapon to be used in 
their self-interest. 

Prior to the French Revolution, all armies were 
dynastic, and the soldiers fought not so much for 
love of country as from a sense of duty, and because 
they were recruited and paid to fight by their royal 
lords and masters. Armies were generally a hetero- 
geneous lot of mercenaries and adventurers, and, 
at times, were rented out by kings to fight in an in- 
ternational quarrel on the side of the highest bidder. 
The Revolution resulted in the nationalizing of the 
French army; the dynastic army of Louis XVI, 
which was composed of mere royal hirelings who 
fought for pay and from a sense of duty to their 
master, was replaced by an army of Frenchmen who 
loved their country and swore fealty, not to a mon- 
arch, but to their land and its Constitution. 

A national army is in reality an army of citizens, 
armed for the defense of their country; they not 
only have the duty and responsibility of defending 
their country, but they also jmssess as citizens the 
right to express their part in the government of their 
country. The French Constitution of 1791 ex- 
presses the most worthy ideal of the first real Na- 
tional Army. "The French nation expressly de- 
clares that it renounces any idea of waging war with 
the intent of making conquests, and will never em- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 55 

ploy its power against the liberty of another peo- 
ple." 

Napoleon found an immense army raised upon 
the basic idea of universal military service and ani- 
mated more by love of country than thought of pay 
or adventure. He perceived its power, abused the 
principle and intrinsic purpose that led to its for- 
mation, and betrayed the people. With devilish am- 
bition he proceeded to plans of conquest, and was 
soon waging dynastic wars of subjugation with an 
army made powerful by the cohesive and patriotic 
spirit of nationalism, grown fanatical and arrogant 
in power and military success. Napoleon took a 
citizen-army who beheved, in their ignorance, that 
they were fighting for democracy, and with it built 
a dynasty. 

The first Prussian King, Frederick Wilhelm I, 
founded the standing dynastic army with which his 
grandson, Frederick the Great, constantly menaced 
Europe, and plunged most of the civiHzed world 
into a seven-year war. Napoleon's national army 
triumphed over all the dynastic armies it encoun- 
tered in its continental campaigns, and it was not 
until Stein, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had organ- 
ized for Prussia its first National Army, copied 
somewhat after the French pattern, that the victory 
of Prussia and her allies over Napoleon was ren- 
dered possible. 

The citizen army of France degenerated in na- 
tional idealism under Napoleon I ; until, under Na- 
poleon III, it unsuccessfully fought for positive 
dynastic interests. The Prussian Army was nation- 
alized in regard to its fighting spirit and permeated 
with a fervid devotion of the soldiers to their coun- 
try; it was not a real citizen army but a deceiving 



56 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

imitation of one, and its members were obsessed 
with the idea of Prussian supremacy and glorifica- 
tion. WiUiam I of Prussia defeated Austria in 
1866, and France under Napoleon III in 1870- 
1871; he entered Paris, obtained territorial gains 
and a large war indemnity, overthrew the Napo- 
leonic dynasty, and by so doing made France a real 
democracy with spirit and ideals, and for himself a 
powerful dynasty, built and sustained by an army 
carried away with a perverted sense of loyalty. It 
is this dynasty, with its despotic absolutism, that is 
trying to dam up the streams of human progress 
and must, therefore, be overthrown, like every other 
obstruction to true civilization that has had to be 
removed to make the path clear for the onward 
march of the people. 

The army of Germany is in reality feudal, not 
national; it is dynastic, not democratic. Delbriick 
in Regierung und Vulkswille writes "Where lies, 
after all, the true power? It lies in arms. The ques- 
tion by which to decide the inner character of a state 
is, accordingly, always whom does the army obey?" 
Hermann Fernau has rightly said that the army is 
the basis and the most indispensable bulwark of 
a dynasty; every dynasty that has been brought 
into being by means of an army can only raise itself 
to power and prestige by the aid of an army, and 
cannot endure without a military protecting force. 
"The Prusso-German soldiers, as in bygone days, 
swear their oaths to the Colors, not upon the Con- 
stitution of their country, hut to the King and Em- 
peror, as their War Lord. They swear according 
to Article 64 of the German Imperial Constitution, 
'to render unconditional obedience to the orders of 
the Emperor/ " And, in order to put the matter 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 57 

beyond doubt, paragi*aph 108 of the Prussian Con- 
stitution expressly adds: ''A swearing-in of the 
army upon the Constitution of the country does not 
take place." 

That the world has generally advanced in its ap- 
preciation and acknowledgment of the rights of 
man, is evidenced by the existing democratic forms 
of government in progressive states ; but that Teu- 
tonia is still living in the despotic atmosphere of the 
dark ages is evidenced by the Prussian Kaiser's 
dynastic and medieval attitude toward the German 
army. The contrast of these two view points is well 
illustrated by comparing a letter ordered to he writ- 
ten by Kaiser Wilhelm II to a German mother who 
has lost nine sons in the war, with the personal let- 
ter written by our President Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby, 
who had lost five sons in the civil war. The German 
letter ordered to be written by "God's anointed" 
reads: "His Majesty, the Kaiser hears that you 
have sacrificed nine sons in defense of the father- 
land in the present war. His Majesty is immensely 
gratified at the fact, and in recognition is pleased 
to send you his photograph with frame and auto- 
graph signature." When Lincoln was shown in 
the files of the War Department a statement of the 
Adjutant General of Massachusetts that a Mrs. 
Bixby had lost five sons on the field of battle, with 
a heart full of sorrow and real human sympathy, he 
wrote to her: "I feel how weak and fruitless must 
be any words of mine which should attempt to be- 
guile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. 
But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the 
consolation that may be found in the thanks of the 
Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heav- 
enly Father may assuage the anguish of your be- 



58 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

reavement and leave you only the cherished mem- 
ory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that 
must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon 
the altar of freedom." 

The great potentate who rules by "divine right" 
could not sacrifice his dignity for a moment; he 
could not write personally to a humble subject, but 
he orders that a letter be written. The Emperor 
"by the grace of God" does not express sorrow or 
sympathy with a heart-broken widow in her over- 
whelming bereavement, but is "immensely grati- 
fied," and poor Frau Meter, destitute and alone in 
the world, and an object of charity in Delmenliors- 
Oldenburg, receives from the greatest egoist of all 
time neither sjnmpathy nor pecuniary rehef, — only 
"his photograph." Lincoln was not "immensely 
gratified," he was deeply and sincerely grieved, and 
it never occurred to him that his "photograph with 
autograph signature" would relieve the desolation 
of Mrs. Bixby. 

The German army is not an instrument represen- 
tative of the will of the people and created for their 
use ; it is of the people but it does not exist for the 
people, and is assuredly not controlled by the peo- 
ple. It is a powerful tool of the Emperor whose 
control of the army is absolute ; those who compose 
the army and defray its cost — the German citizens 
— have no voice whatsoever either in its organiza- 
tion, or in its employment. 

On November 23rd, 1891, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 
in addressing newly-sworn recruits, said, "More 
than ever before, unbelief and dissatisfaction lift 
their heads in the fatherland, and the occasion may 
arise when you will have to shoot or bayonet your 
own brothers and relatives. Then seal your allegi- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 59 

ance with the sacrifice of your heart's blood." Here 
we have a brazen and diabohcal advocacy of fidehty 
to King being placed far above loyalty to country, 
to ideals, to humanity, to one's fellows, to one's 
flesh and blood, and to one's loved ones. In ad- 
dressing the army, the Emperor insists primarily 
on the duty of obedience and unfaltering loyalty to 
himself. On one occasion, in addressing recruits, 
he remarked, "Your duty is not easy; it demands 
of you self-control and self-denial — the two highest 
qualities of the Christian, also unlimited obedience 
and submission to the will of your superiors. As I, 
Emperor and ruler, devote the whole of my action 
and ambitions to the fatherland, so you 7?iust devote 
your whole life to me;" and again, "There is but one 
law and that is my will." 

At Breslau, on December 2nd, 1896, the German 
Kaiser declared to his soldiers, "The more people 
shelter themselves behind catch-words and party- 
considerations, the more firmly and securely do I 
count upon my army, and the more confidently do 
I hope that 7ny army, either without or within 7}iy 
realm, will wait upon my wishes and my behests," 
and again, in addressing the troops at Berlin on 
November 16th, 1893, he said, "You have the honor 
to belong to my guard and to stand in and about 
my residence and my capital. You are called upon, 
in the first place, to protect me against internal and 
external foes," and again on June 15th, 1898, at 
Potsdam, "I assumed the crown with a heavy heart; 
my capacity was everywhere doubted, and every- 
where I was wrongly judged. Only one had confi- 
dence in me, only one believed in me, and that was 
the army ; and, with its support, and trusting in our 
old God, I undertook my responsible office, knowing 



60 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

full well that the army is the mainstay of my coun- 
try and the chief pillar of the Prussian throne, to 
which God in His wisdom has summoned me." 

The people have no right in the choice of a ruler, 
the Kaiser rules despotically by God's will ; the peo- 
ple have no voice in military matters, for the army 
is the means which God uses to enforce His decrees 
and keep His divine representative on earth upon 
the German throne. "The soldiers and the army," 
said Wilhelm II, in Berlin, April 18th, 1891, "and 
not parliamentary majorities and resolutions have 
welded together the German empire. My trust I 
place in my army." And on October 11th, 1894, he 
remarked, "Just as at that time" (the reign of his 
grandfather, Wilhelm I) "so now, too, distrust and 
discord are rife among the people. The only pillar 
on which our empire rested then was the army. So 
it is today." No living monarch has said or done 
more to revive the medieval fetish of the "divine 
right" of kings than Wilhelm II of Germany. To 
his soldiers he recently said: "You think each day 
of your Emperor. Do not forget God," — a lesser, 
but still rather important potentate. 

In a speech at Konigsberg, on August 25th, 1910, 
Wilhelm II boldly and intolerantly asserted that 
his grandfather had "placed by his own right the 
crown of the kings of Prussia upon his head, once 
again laying stress upon the fact that it was con- 
ferred upon him by the grace of God alone, and not 
by parliaments, popular assemblies, or popular reso- 
lutions, and that he considered himself the chosen 
instrument of Heaven, and as such, performed his 
duties as regent and as ruler." This reminds one 
of the declaration of Louis XIV of France, who, 
Dulaure tells us, once interrupted a judge who used 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 61 

the expression "The King and the State," by pas- 
sionately saying, "The State! I am the state" This 
pohcy of despotic absolutism later led to the over- 
throw of the French dynasty which, like the Hohen- 
zollerns, had sought to enslave a great people. 
Gustav Freytag, in referring especially to the 
Hohenzollern dynasty, said, "To stand above oth- 
ers as the God of Battles and as the earthly Fate 
of hundreds of thousands, renders the best and 
noblest man at last susceptible to the hateful idea : 

I am the State!" 

Bethmann-HoUweg defended Emperor Wilhelm 

II against attacks in the Reichstag regarding his 
Konigsberg speech on divine right, and boldly said 
that "The Emperor's declarations as to the rights 
and duties of Prussian sovereigns were in no way 
incompatible with the Prussian Constitution, which 
did not recognize the sovereignty of the people." 
The Chancellor also said that "Prussia could not 
allow herself to be towed into the waters of Parlia- 
mentary government, while the power of the mon- 
archy remained unbroken. That power of the mon- 
archy which had always made it its proud tradition 
to be a kingdom for all, would not be tampered 
with." Prince von Biilow, the predecessor of 
Bethmann-HoUweg in office, in November, 1906, 
clearly stated his master's views, when he announced 
in the Reichstag that ministerial responsibility to 
the people or their elected representatives was im- 
possible in Germany. "The Ministers are not the 
organs of Parliament and its temporary majority. 
They are the men who possess the confidence of the 
crown, and the legislative ordinances are the ordi- 
nances of the government and the monarch." 

King Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia, (who 



62 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

reigned from 1840 to 1861 and went mad in 1857), 
was elected "Hereditary Emperor of the Germans" 
by the Frankfort Diet in 1849. He refused the 
honor, which would have been quite nominal, on the 
ground that he could not accept it from the people 
— ^whom he also accused of being revolutionary in 
their democratic ideas, — but only from his peers, 
i. e., from princes of noble birth. This mental atti- 
tude is peculiarly HohenzoUern ; the masses of hu- 
manity and the common people are subjects and 
vassals, and as such have no rights in the choice of 
masters or of government. Kings acquire serfs by 
conquest and barter, and the slaves of dynasties, or 
the people who inhabit the territory of a king, can- 
not elect their masters or choose whom they will 
serve ; property cannot select its owner. The ruler 
of a people is determined by God, not by the popu- 
lar will of the people themselves. If states wish to 
consolidate or become federated in order to increase 
their power, then the decision in regard to the com- 
bination must be made only by the princes or rulers 
of the individual states, for such federation is some- 
thing in which, dynasties insist, the people should 
have absolutely no voice. 

The Prussian Kings always aspired to be Ger- 
man or Teuton Emperors, but they insisted on Im- 
perial power with the office ; an honorary title with 
nominal power was not appealing. Bismarck 
founded the German Empire for the Hohenzollerns 
on Machiavellian diplomacy and the Prussian 
sword. King Wilhelrn IV refused the title of Em- 
peror at the hands of the people in 1849; in 1871 
King Wilhelm I, sword in hand, crowned himself 
German Emperor, not on German soil and not 
amid, or with the consent of the German people, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 63 

but surrounded by his army in the land of a foreign 
power, and amidst the acclamation of German 
Princes. The militarism and the unscrupulous des- 
potic autocracy of Prussianism were fastened upon 
the rest of Germany by the sword, — by blood and 
iron ; and Prussian deference to authority, Prussian 
capacity for discipline, and Prussian concentration 
on material aims, supplanted the idealism and inde- 
pendence of Southern Germany, and became the 
leading principles and characteristics of the Ger- 
man Empire-State. 

The German Kaiser says he rules "by the grace 
of God alone, and not by Parliaments, popular as- 
semblies and popular resolutions." This statement 
is purely dynastic and is the spirit of an era long 
since past. There is a striking similarity in spirit 
between this saying and the famous words of Bis- 
marck uttered on his ascension to power in 1862, in 
which he described dynastic methods and fore- 
shadowed the future policy of the Hohenzollerns — 
(whom he alone lifted from humiliation to power) 
— "The great questions are to be settled not by 
speeches and majority resolutions, but by blood and 
iron," i. e., the great questions will not be presented 
at all to the Reichstag for discussion or action, but 
will be settled by the dynasty and the government, 
— or Ministers personally responsible to the dy- 
nasty, — and this by the threat of force or by the 
use of the army. The army is the instrument of 
the dynasty, not of the people ; it is the tool of the 
King and Emperor, and will be used at home or 
abroad to enforce his will. 

It is interesting to learn more or less authorita- 
tively that the German God is today opposed to de- 
mocracy and universal suffrage in Prusso-Germany. 



64 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Pastor Bohmerle in the Reichs-Gottes-Boten 
(which might be translated as ''God's Imperial Pri- 
vate Wire") rejoicing over the defeat in the Prus- 
sian Landtag of the proposal for equal suffrage 
says, "We cannot regard it as anything less than a 
saving act of God. In this matter we have no parti- 
san interests, nor even political viewpoints, but only 
the interests of faith. We believe that it is in oppo- 
sition to every divine order to value all men upon an 
equal basis, and that such an act of irreligion would 
be bound to bring a curse upon us." Thus the Prus- 
sian church and state are centuries behind the lead- 
ing and progressive thought of the world, and far 
from the great American conception that "All men 
are created equal, that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among 
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 

In 1890, Wilhelm II arrogantly declared, "The 
Kaiser's will is the highest law." Ten years later 
he said, "Looking upon myself as the instrument of 
the Lord, without regard to the opinions or inten- 
tions of the day, I go my way." And again at Ber- 
lin in March, 1890, "One only is master within the 
Empire and I will tolerate no other. ... I 
heartily welcome those who wish to aid me in my 
endeavors, whoever they may be" (provided they 
become my serfs), "but those who oppose me in my 
work I wiU crush." 

These words were particularly significant as they 
were uttered immediately after the young Emperor 
had humiliated Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, and 
the people's idol, and obtained his resignation from 
office, because Bismarck had a mind of his own and 
had frowned upon Wilhelm's foreign territorial 
ambitions, protested against his erratic talkative- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 65 

ness and dramatic actions, and finally insisted on 
the Emperor's conformity to well-established rules 
and precedents. The final break came when, upon 
Willielm's return from a visit to the Turkish Sultan, 
Abdul-Hamid, which was the beginning of a con- 
nection that lead to the German domination of Tur- 
key, the Berlin-Bagdad railroad scheme and the 
Mittel-europa idea — the Emperor not only declared, 
in conversation with Bismarck, that there could only 
be one autocrat in Germany and he was determined 
to be that person, but even had the effrontery to 
question Bismarck's good taste and Imperial loy- 
alty in receiving democrats in his home. This was 
the last straw; Bismarck retorted that not even a 
German Emperor could dictate to him or his wife 
whom they should receive as guests in their draw- 
ing-room. Bismarck lived for several years to see 
how the Constitution, which he had himself created, 
worked in the hands of an impulsive and ambitious 
Emperor — more noted for indiscretion than for wis- 
dom — who was determined to be the absolute auto- 
crat of the realm. 

Bismarck saw that awful despotic power, for 
which he himself was responsible, pass into incom- 
petent, erratic and vainglorious hands, and he feared 
the inevitable outcome upon Germany and the rest 
of the world. "Not only military equipment," he 
wrote, in Reflections and Reminiscences, "but also a 
correct political eye will be required to guide the 
German ship of state through the currents of coali- 
tion to which we are exposed iri consequence of our 
geographical position and our previous history. 
. . . Former rulers looked more to the capacity 
than the obedience of their advisers/' (Bismarck's 
constitution really made the Minister and Chan- 



66 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

cellor, i. e., himself, the real despot) "if obedience 
alone is the criterion, then demands will be made 
upon the general ability of the monarch which even 
Frederick the Great himself would not satisfy, al- 
though in his time politics both in war and peace 
were less difficult than they are today." In his old 
age, realizing the dangers of the tyrannous system 
for which he was responsible, Bismarck made the 
remarkable avowal, "If I were not a Christian, I 
would be a Republican." 

After the dismissal of Bismarck, the Emperor 
announced that he was going to abandon the Bis- 
marckian traditions and inaugurate a world-policy 
instead of a European policy. "My course," he said, 
"is the right one and I shall follow it." Providence 
and the German God, he declared, had decreed that 
the German people under his guidance should lead 
the world, therefore he was determined that Ger- 
many must assert her power and must exercise her 
influence in every part of the globe. "We are the 
salt of the earth;" "I will lead you to glorious 
times." The German foreign policy since 1890 was 
expressed by the Emperor himself, "Nothing must 
henceforth be settled in the world without the inter- 
vention of Germany and the German Emperor. 
. . . I shall not rest until I have brought my 
fleet to the same standard as mj^ army;" "The tri- 
dent ought to be in our fist." And again, "With- 
out Germany and the German Emperor no great 
decision dare henceforth be taken" in any part of 
the world. "To this end it is my duty and my finest 
privilege to use the proper and, if necessary, the 
most drastic means without fear of consequences." 
To the soldiers in reserve behind the battle front the 
Kaiser declared: "We are fighting the fight of light 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 67 

against darkness. . . . Our will is bent toward 
the good, and to the upright of spirit — the Germans 
— God will surely allot success," and Karl von Win- 
terstetten (Dr. Albrecht Ritter) writes (1914), 
"When the German Emperor is crowned with vic- 
tory, then what he promised us in his youthful days 
will stand forth as a great accomplished fact. 'I 
am leading you to days of glory.' Let us forget all 
our discontent of former times, and let us thank 
our fate, which has guided us through darkness into 
light. Henceforth the German shall be the proud- 
est and greatest man on earth." 

The German Kaiser places the army in relative 
importance far above the people, and this is but 
natural since his throne depends upon the army. 
The people might become so bold as to question 
and reason with him ; they might claim the ordinary 
and political and moral rights to which all peoples 
are entitled, but the army has been trained to 
obey, and is officered by a privileged military class 
to enforce obedience. When Wilhelm II ascended 
the throne, he first addressed his army, then his 
navy, and last of all — three days later — "my peo- 
ple." At Kiel, on December 3rd, 1894, he declared 
to his soldiers, "You wear the Emperor's coat, 
therefore you are raised above other men." And 
upon the occasion of addressing the Royal Guard 
in 1898, the German Kaiser said, "The most im- 
portant heritage which my noble grandfather and 
father left me is the army, and I received it with 
pride and joy. To it I addressed the first decree 
when I mounted the throne. . . . And upon 
leaving it, trusting our old God, I took up my 
heavy charge, knowing well that the army was 
the main support of my country, the main support 



68 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

of the Prussian throne, to which the decision of God 
has called me." 

At Berlin, on March 5th, 1890, Wilhehn II said 
that he saw "in the people and the country which 
I have inherited, a talent entrusted to me by God, 
which — as it is written in the Bible — it is my duty 
to increase." On April 21st, at Bremen, he 
remarked that what Germany had achieved was 
primarily due to the fact that "in our house we 
regard ourselves as appointed by God to reign 
over the peoples whom we have been called to rule, 
and to guide them in accordance with their welfare 
and the furtherance of their material and spiritual 
interests." At Berhn, on February 20th, 1891, 
Kaiser Wilhelm reiterated his divine mission and 
responsibility, "I regard my whole position and my 
mission as one entrusted to me by God, and I am 
called to execute the mandates of a Higher Being 
to whom I shall hereafter have to render account." 

To rule by "divine right" is to govern arbitrarily 
and oppose the real will of the people, by super- 
stition, and, if needs be, — by force. He who 
claims to rule as God's anointed or appointed rep- 
resentative is beyond the moral law of mortal man ; 
he enjoys intercourse with the Divine and can 
claim for himself peculiar guidance and a separate, 
lofty ethical code. It has been well said that the 
dynasty by God's grace is lawlessness reduced to 
legal form, and that dynasties endued with divine 
preogatives are adventurers ; their conception of the 
world and of humanity is primitive and pagan. 
"The purely instinctive impulse of dynasties is for 
self-preservation and self-aggrandizement." 

At Konigsberg, on September 6th, 1894, Wil- 
helm II said, "The descendant of him, who by his 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 69 

own right became sovereign duke in Prussia, will 
pursue the same paths as his immortal ancestor; 
just as the first king said, 'My crown, I have myself 
created,' and his illustrious son established his 
authority as a 'rock of bronze,' so do I, like my 
Imperial grandfather, represent the monarchy by 
divine right." Ever since the German Emperor 
dismissed Bismarck he has been the undisputed, 
absolute ruler of the realm, making and discarding 
his Ministers, as their policy diverged from his or 
became too unpopular. At every crisis, the will 
of the Kaiser is supreme, and he it is who makes 
the final decision, and outlines or approves of every 
policy and important act. He firmly believes not 
only that he is the ruler of Germany, but that all 
Germans are his vassals, and that it is their reli- 
gious duty to micomplainingly and blindly, without 
comment or even individual thought, obey his every 
wish. "The King is King by God's grace and he 
is responsible only to the Lord." 

At Frankfort, in 1896, the Emperor said, "I 
call to mind the moment when my grandfather, as 
King by the grace of God, took the crown in one 
hand and the Imperial sword in the other, and gave 
honor to God alone, and from Him alone took the 
crown." And at Coblenz, on August 31st, 1897, 
the German Kaiser, talking of his grandfather, 
Wilhelm I, said, "He came forth from Coblenz 
on ascending the throne, as a chosen vessel of the 
Lord, and as such he regarded himself. For us 
all, and especially for us Princes, he has once more 
lifted on high a jewel and endowed it with gi'eater 
brilliancy, a jewel that we must keep high and holy; 
I mean the monarchy by God's grace. The mon- 
archy with its heavy duties, its never-ending, ever- 



70 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

continuing toil and labor, with its fearful responsi- 
bility to the Creator alone, from which no man, no 
minister, no house of deputies and no people can 
relieve its prince/' 

Kaiser Wilhelm II, on January 1st, 1900, 
expressed to the world his ambition for conquest 
by the power of might when he said, "You must 
in ceaseless labor offer all the powers of body and 
soul to the building up and development of our 
troops," and after speaking of the need of an effec- 
tive navy as well as army, if they are to be a domi- 
nant world-power, he adds that when both branches 
of the service are ready, "I hope to be in a position, 
firmly trusting in the leadership of God, to carry 
into effect the saying of Frederick Wilhelm I, 'If 
one wishes to decide anything in the world it 
cannot be done with the pen, unless the pen is 
supported by the force of the sword.' " 

Who are the Hohenzollerns who claim to be 
appointed by God to rule the world? They them- 
selves claim descent from a Count Thassilo — an 
obscure baron — who is said to have lived in the 
ninth century in a castle near Hechingen on the 
Zollern Heights. Ignoring all genealogical myths 
and unsubstantiated claims prompted by egoism, 
they are first definitely placed in history when they 
became connected with the land which is now part 
of Prussia. In 1415, Frederick Hohenzollern, the 
Burgrave (burg-graf, i. e., the governor of a castle or 
fortified town) of Nuremburg, and a man of good 
business abihty, received from the Emperor Sigis- 
mund, of Germanj^ and the Holy Roman Empire, 
for cash and in payment for services rendered, 
the sandy tract of land lying between the Middle 
Elbe and Lower Oder and stretching across their 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 71 

banks. This land was known as the Mark of Bran- 
denburg, — a Mark being a strip of land on the 
border of a country or frontier where, for national 
safety, the military power had to be maintained. 
Frederick Hohenzollern, the Governor of a town 
where he had little chance to further realize his 
ambition for power, therefore became a Margrave 
(Mark-graf, i. e., military governor of a part of 
the border) on the outskirts of the Empire where 
he could expand his domain at the expense of 
neighbors and foreigners, without directly antago- 
nizing his liege lord, the Emperor. With the aid 
of a family statute which made primogeniture the 
rule of succession for Brandenburg, the Hohenzol- 
lerns refused to follow the German custom of equal 
inheritance. Imbued with the idea of family great- 
ness and power, and by careful watching of 
opportunities, by purchases, covenants and mar- 
riage, in two centuries the domain of Brandenburg 
was quadrupled. When the Thirty -year War broke 
out and the modern history of Prussia began, the 
head of the Hohenzollern family, because of the 
business ability, thrift, far-sightedness and ambi- 
tions of his forefathers, and their success in poHtics, 
had become one of the seven Electors of the Em- 
pire, and held sway over an area almost as large 
as the state of Maine. 

After the war, Frederick Wilhelm (1640-1688), 
the great-grandfather of Frederick the Great, 
succeeded his father, the Elector George Wilhelm 
(1619-1640), a deplorably weak man; and vigor- 
ously pursuing the old Hohenzollern policy of 
family aggi'andizement, earned for himself the 
title of the "Great Elector" and the place of the 
first hero of the Prussian state. Frederick Wilhelm 



72 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

is described as "coarse by nature, heartless in 
destroying opponents, treacherous in diplomatic 
negotiations, and entirely devoid of refinement." 
He organized the Prussian army and commenced 
to acquire territory and power by might, rather 
than follow the poHcy of his ancestors who had 
grown strong by thrift, politics and the use of their 
scheming brains. He took East Prussia from 
Poland and drove the Swedes out of the land. 

The son of the Great Elector was Frederick, 
weak and vain, who ruled from 1688 to 1713, and 
as a result of services rendered by his army to the 
Emperor, he prevailed upon him to make him 
King of Prussia in 1701. Frederick I crowned 
himself at Konigsburg, and Austria soon had cause 
to regret the means she adopted of paying a foolish, 
feeble and pompous noble for the use of his army. 
From the first the Crown aggrandized the Hohen- 
zollern dynasty. It concentrated their ambitions, 
enlarged their horizon and gave them, as the 
"Lord's anointed," a new claim upon the fidelity 
of their subjects. 

The son of Frederick I was Frederick Wilhehn I 
(1713-1740), who finally established the royal 
power. He was a cruel bully, violent, rough and 
arrogant, and was determined to build up an in- 
vincible Military Machine for further conquest. 
He scoui'ed all Europe in search of tall men for 
his armies, even selling the royal jewels and turn- 
ing the family plate into money in order to defray 
the cost. Frederick Wilhehn increased the Prus- 
sian army until it consisted of 83,000 well-trained 
men, which was in those days a tremendous force for 
a country of two and a half milhon people. His son, 
Frederick II — the Great, — who ruled from 1740 to 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 73 

1786, inherited the army, still further developed 
it, and used it to acquire territory by force and 
as a constant menace to the peace of the world. 
Frederick II brutally wrenched Silesia from Maria 
Theresa, the helpless young Empress of Austria, 
without the pretense of an excuse, and the shameful 
partition of Poland was successfully begun. Mili- 
tarism, a forceful tool of unbridled ambition, prac- 
tically doubled the size of Prussia during the life- 
time of the powerful, much-talking but unprinci- 
pled, Frederick. The present Kaiser, his methods 
and aspirations have their prototype in Frederick 
II, five generations back, and the sixth king before 
him. 

It is true that "History repeats itself," but the 
civilized world of the twentieth century will not 
tolerate the high-handed, brutal methods of 1740- 
1763, and Wilhelm II will not succeed in bullying 
Europe as did his illustrious predecessor over a 
century and a half ago. "All the world knows 
what value to attach to the King of Prussia and his 
word," said Maria Theresa in 1742, "There is no 
sovereign in Europe who has not suffered from his 
perfidy. Under a despotism which repudiates 
every principle^, the Prussian monarchy will one 
day he the source of infinite calamity, not only to 
Germany hut to the whole of Europe." Was ever 
prophecy more literally fulfilled! But today it is 
not only the whole of Europe but the entire world 
that is involved in the calamity of the Prussian curse. 

Five centuries ago, the "divine right" Hohen- 
zollerns were thrifty and successful burghers; 
today, they affirm that they are chosen by God to 
dominate their fellows. The territory they ac- 
quired by purchase and shrewdness was a nucleus 



74 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

of an empire acquired by the sword, but to the 
mind of a Hohenzollern, the German Empire is 
their physical property, just as much as was the 
sandy tract originally acquired by Frederick 
Hohenzollern, the Burgrave of Nm-emburg; and 
the German people are the slaves that go with the 
territory. "Why should I serve the Hohenzol- 
lerns?" Bismarck once exclaimed in wrath, after 
suffering deep humiliation at the hands of the 
young Emperor Wilhelm II, "My family is as 
good as theirs. We have been here longer than 
they have." This is undoubtedly true. The Bis- 
marcks were pure Brandenburgers and are known 
to have been prominent in the old Mark for at 
least two centuries before the first Hohenzollern 
became Margrave and lord of the territory, and 
Prince Bismarck's ancestors stood out against the 
rule of the Great Elector. The chief difference, 
however, arises from the fact that one yeoman was 
more shrewd in business deals than the other; he 
saved his money and bought the lordship of a 
manor; and because of this thrift, business judg- 
ment and inordinate ambition that later made 
everything in life subordinate to the passion for 
power, the Hohenzollerns — bourgeois ennobled in 
the Middle Ages, — fought the Hapsburgs in the 
eighteenth century, rivaled and humiliated them in 
the nineteenth, and made them their vassals as 
they sought to subjugate all the free people of the 
world, in the twentieth. 

The German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, has been 
likened to Attila the Hun, Genseric the Vandal, 
and Alaric the Visigoth, — all Germans. His aspi- 
rations and methods are also analagous to those of 
Temujin (1155-1227), who changed his name at 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 75 

the suggestion of "The Son of Heaven" to Genghis 
Khan, or Khan of Khans — the ruler over the whole 
earth. Genghis became world-famous for three 
things: (1) He was a conqueror with insatiable 
ambitions for territory and power. (2) His con- 
quests were always accompanied with acts of 
appalling, revolting and unequaled barbarity; — 
toward the end of his life it was his proud boast 
that he had destroyed six million human beings. 
(3) He was a religious man, and a stern believer 
in his Tribal and exclusive God. 

But Attila, the barbarian, "The Scourge of 
God," and in his era the most formidable foe to the 
civilization of Europe, (who by a strange coinci- 
dence was beaten at the Marne, 451 A. D., in his 
campaign for European dominion), Alaric and 
Genseric who sacked and pillaged Rome and gave 
Christendom, in the fifth century, a taste of what 
we now know as Prussianism, and Genghis Khan the 
unspeakable Mongol-Tartar-Hun, have all been 
eclipsed in devilish depravity by Wilhelm Hohen- 
zollern. King of Prussia by the grace of God, and 
Emperor of Germany by the iron will and treach- 
ery of Bismarck and the military prowess of 
Moltke. 

When Wilhelm II, soon after his accession 
visited Oscar II of Sweden, that shrewd and obser- 
vant King remarked, "The young German Kaiser 
is another Nero." This was no mere epithet; it 
was a character study in a phrase. Renan, in his 
Antichrist, describes Nero as "the vainest and most 
ridiculous sovereign whom ever the hazard of events 
has brought into the foreground of history. . . . 
In Nero there was something at once terrifying 
and grotesque, grandiose and absurd. . . . 



76 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

The fantasies of all centuries . . . were 
jostled chaotically together in his brain, the feeble 
brain of a mediocre but self-sufficient artist, to 
whom chance had granted the power to realize all 
his wildest dreams. . . . Imagine a man 
. . . a mixture of lunatic, lackey and actor 
invested with universal power, and charged with 
the task of governing the world! ... It was 
assured beforehand that a nature which was vain, 
cunning, filled with desire for the immense, the 
infinite, but lacking all judgment, would meet with 
deplorable shipwreck. . . . It is one of the 
glories of Gaul that the downfall of such a tyrant 
should have been her work;" It is another of the 
glories of Gaul that the modern reincarnation of 
Nero should also fall by her hand. The mad 
Roman Emperor died by his own hand (68 
A. D.), after being outlawed and declared by the 
Senate "an enemy of the Roman state and people;" 
and there was a popular legend that a moment 
before his death "the earth trembled as if it 
were rent open, and the souls of all those whom 
he had slain came and hurled themselves upon 
him. . . . When the hfe that parallels his 
in many respects shall come to its end, what an 
endless procession of ghosts will arise, if that last 
parallel should be maintained!" 

The German Kaiser is an ecclesiastic, being the 
Head of the United Church of Prussia (Protes- 
tant) founded in 1614. King Frederick Wilhelm 
III of Prussia, under date of Sept. 27th, 1817, 
published an appeal to his people, recommending 
a union of the Reformed (Calvinistic) and Luth- 
eran churches. It met with much opposition, but 
what did the protest amount to, when ministers 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 77 

were cast into prison or forced into exile, and 
churches were opened and pastors placed over the 
people with the aid of the military? After the 
Revolution of 1848, the Constitution of Prussia 
declared, "Each religious community administers 
its own affairs independently;" the Roman Catho- 
lics and the separated Lutherans obtained some 
freedom, but the State Church, i. e., the original 
Reformed (Calvinistic) church of the Elector of 
Brandenburg and the Hohenzollerns, which had by 
force, bribe and fear absorbed the original Luth- 
erans, still remained fettered and controlled by the 
state. The German Protestant church, as well as 
the educational establishments, have been Prussian- 
ized, while the dynasty plays politics with the Cath- 
olics or clericals. It is significant that the incum- 
bent of the Roman Holy See today is a political 
Pope and not a spiritual Pope like his sublime pre- 
decessor, who was sickened unto death by this 
horrible war that has cursed the whole of Chris- 
tendom. 

The German Emperor who once stood in Pales- 
tine within sight of the Mount of Olives and 
preached a sermon breathing of Christian humility, 
did not hesitate, in order to advance the Pan- 
German Mittel-europa idea, to clasp in fraternal 
greeting the bloody hand of the unspeakable Turk, 
who has reveled in Armenian outrages and massa- 
cres. The Kaiser of "Christian" Germany trained 
and officered the Turkish army, ignored the Turk's 
persistent atrocities, and secured from him con- 
cessions for the Berlin to Bagdad railroad. 

Wilhelm II surpassed himself, however, when 
as a "Christian" monarch he addressed his soldiers 
on "the Yellow Peril" before they set out for China 



78 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

on a punitive expedition. "When you encounter 
the enemy you will defeat him. No quarter shall 
be given, no prisoners shall be taken. Let all who 
fall into your hands be at your mercy. Just as 
the Huns a thousand years ago, under the leader- 
ship of Attila, gained a reputation because of which 
they still live in history, so may the name of Ger- 
many become known in such manner in China that 
no Chinaman will ever again dare to look askance 
at a German." 

After suffering much humiliation, China had 
finally used force against Occidental interference 
with her religion, customs and mode of life, hence 
this campaign of extermination that only a savage 
could conceive. James M. Beck has said that the 
campaign "was planned against the most pacific 
and unagressive race, the Chinese, for it is sadly 
true that the one nation which has more than any 
other been inspired for two thousand years by the 
spirit of 'peace on earth' is the hermit nation into 
which, until the nineteenth century, the light of 
Christianity never shone." 

The German Emperor's address to the troops to 
be despatched to punish "The Heathen Chinese" 
is peculiarly Prussian, and the same general spirit 
is constantly in evidence in Prussian military cam- 
paigns. The Intellectuals of Germany, in 1914, 
announced to the world that "the German troops, 
with their iron discipline, will respect the personal 
property and liberty of the individual in Belgium," 
but the record of unspeakable atrocities of the 
modern Huns will never be effaced from the minds 
of men. In this connection, it is of interest to 
mention the Order of the day issued by Gen. Sten- 
ger, Commander of the 38th Brigade, Aug. 26th, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 79 

1914: "Beginning with today, no more prisoners 
are to be taken. All prisoners are to be put to 
death. The wounded, whether armed or not, are 
to be put to death; prisoners even when they are 
organized in large units are to be put to death. 
No living man is to remain behind us." This order 
clearly indicates that the German army is officered 
by men who obey "their master's voice." 

Today, wherever the German flag flies, the 
Hohenzollen dynasty, as far as human power can 
reach, is practically omnipotent. A German may 
be an atheist, think and express what he pleases of 
God, advocate the most depraved morals and 
unethical conduct, but he must respect the Kaiser 
and revere his name ; he can believe what he pleases 
about any matter except the dynasty, state and 
Constitution, but if he desires to live in Germany 
as a "free" man and a respected citizen, he must 
maintain that the dynasty is appointed by God, 
that the state is a model to all the peoples of the 
world, and that the Constitution is an ideal one, 
perfect in its conception and wonderfully practical 
and successful in its operation. 

There is no room for any individual, unfet- 
tered mind in Germany; after the paroxysms 
which shook Europe with the spirit of democracy, 
there was a general exodus of genius from the land 
when the dynasty, with devilish subtlety, false 
promises and a hypocritical guile — hiding from 
vulgar gaze a malicious mailed fist, — mentally and 
positively enslaved a people and placed a nation 
firmly under the absolute and tyrannous domina- 
tion of a despotic dynasty. The great Kant, who 
had republican ideas and abhorred war, was 
severely reprimanded, humiliated and silenced by 



80 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the King. Fichte, who gave to the German people, 
when in adversity and under French domination, 
much of the fine spirit that gave them victory in 
the Wars of Liberation, was made to hold his peace 
as Napoleonism waned. The dynasty would not 
tolerate the doctrines of individual rights and 
democracy to be preached within the realm. They 
affirmed that the state is everything and the indi- 
vidual nothing, and the dynasty is the state. The 
philosophers who maintained that the state exists 
for the individual, not the individual for the state, 
and that political freedom is the foundation of all 
true culture, were hounded and banished. 

Hegel's doctrine that the state is a divine entity 
and that man is a mere stone in the structure, and 
cannot know what is good for him, pleased the 
dynasty; Hegel was loaded with honors and his 
so-called philosophy became the intellectual foun- 
dation on which Prussianism, as it exists today, 
was firmly built. Bismarck well illustrated the 
Hegel idea in political action. Leibnitz, Kant, Less- 
ing, Fichte and Humboldt had expressed the 
essentially democratic belief that the state should 
stand for liberty and justice. Hegel's watchword 
was "State and Politics," and his successor, Treit- 
schke, went further still, threw away all semblance 
of a mask, and boldly taught "The State is Power," 
and "Power is the Might of the Sword." The 
dynasty persecuted the unfettered and free-think- 
ing, individualistic minds of Germany, and created 
an "intellectual terrorism;" but Hegel, Treitschke, 
Stirner, Nietzsche and others gave the dynasty the 
philosopliical and scientific justification it needed 
to serve its selfish ends, and German professors 
and German writers and leaders of thought in the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 81 

Empire sold their souls and birthrights for a miser- 
able "mess of pottage" to become the subsidized 
intellectual body-guard of the Hohenzollerns. 

College professors and leading educators of Ger- 
many are state-appointed officials: Schopenliauer 
ironically observed that a government can never be 
expected to place in teachers' positions those who 
teach the opposite of that which forms the founda- 
tion of their governing authority. Such philoso- 
phers as Hegel and Schelling, he affirmed, do not 
live for philosophy, but by it, and therefore such 
men can never be seriously regarded by fair-minded 
men as unprejudiced searchers for truth. 

Hermann Fernau, a banished German, speaks of 
the Teutonic "Champion of Culture," the "intellec- 
tual lieutenant in theHohenzoUern Guard, ready to 
obey at the word of command," and he writes, 
"German culture in the German Empire? No! A 
Ptolemic Cosmic system and superstitious theories 
which circle around the stationary level of their 
dynasty ; a graciously tolerated cloak of militarism ; 
a puerile phantom machine with 'energetic impera- 
tives' and thousands of empty phrases; a Ptolemic 
religion of fawning mandarins ; at the best, a mus- 
ing on pious sentiments and a splendid naivete of 
prophetic souls; here and there, perchance, a sub- 
servient attempt to curb the war-thirsty beast. 
Nothing more. . . . Among a hundred there 
is hardly one who dares to play the man; slaves, 
who carry their master's whips: pedants who 
belaud as liberty what all the rest of the world 
has long felt to be serfdom; acrobats and court 
jesters who are permitted by their guard lords to 
present all manner of burlesque of freedom to the 
people; . . . Learning without character, 



82 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

knowledge without conscience, organization with- 
out humanity, disciphne without liberty, ideal 
without dignity; such is the result of a mental 
development that, commencing with the disappear- 
ance of Weimar Germanism and politically trained 
by Metternich, Bismarck and Wilhelm II, and, 
intellectually, by Hegel, Treitschke and their dis- 
ciples, could only play its part as a protecting 
power of the dynasty. It has shown the culmina- 
tion of this development in a complete victory of 
Potsdam over Weimar." 

And what has the German people to say of this 
Emperor who places the military before the civil 
population, who boldly asserts that the army is 
his own exclusive property and the "chief pillar 
of the Prussian throne," who perpetually reiterates 
in the swearing of recruits, "You have sworn me 
the oath of allegiance," and who gives as a watch- 
word, "With God for Kaiser and Empire." We 
read in the speeches of his ministers — whom, by 
the way, he himself appoints — such nauseating 
comments as "The German people must deem 
it an honor to wear the Kaiser's uniform and pro- 
tect the Kaiser's house." Or as an example of the 
invirile mentality of the obsessed people and the 
lackeyism of German ministers, we may cite the 
speech of the President of the Reichstag, Count 
von Ballestren, delivered on January 27th, 1900: 
"The Emperor understood his time; he said 'I 
live in the days of publicity and free speech and I 
will not be a so-called constitutional monarch who 
reigns and does not rule.' I am convinced that it 
would not be agreeable to our glorious Emperor 
if he were asked to accept such a role. 
Gentlemen, this ought to fill us with admiration, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 83 

and we ought to thank Providence that we have 
in these times such an Emperor ; this should stimu- 
late us to the best of our abihty, and, so far as our 
conviction allows it, to anticipate and further the 
great intentions of our Emperor." 

The German fatherland does not belong to the 
German people but to the German Emperor. The 
dynasty is all-powerful, and through the mihtary 
caste and the army, the nobility, the domination of 
institutions and the tempting subsidizing bait of- 
fered to the genius and talented bourgeois, the Ger- 
man mind is subdued and enfettered. "Universal 
suffrage in Prusso- Germany," it has been well 
said, "is not a fact, but a pious fraud." The Reich- 
stag is not truly representative of the people, and 
even if Bismarck's Electoral Law and Regula- 
tions were changed so that every commimity would 
be represented in accordance with its actual popu- 
lation now, and not as it was half a century ago, 
yet this elected body of men would not be a ruling 
body, — it would be, as now, absolutely impotent. 
The Reichstag is continually being bulldozed, 
abused and ignored by the dynasty; it is in reality 
nothing but a mere debating society and "a will- 
fully bungled imitation of other Parliaments with 
a constantly menaced and circumscribed existence." 
The Reichstag is not a monument of democracy, 
but a false advertisement of a modernity of gov- 
ernment that does not exist. Whenever the Reich- 
staff has dared to act counter to the dictates of the 
dynasty, such as in 1878, with the Socialists' Law; 
in 1887, when it propounded the question of Im- 
perial or Parliamentary Ai*my; in 1893, when it 
protested against persistent increase of armaments ; 
in 1907, when it objected to the German colonial 



84 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

and world-policy; in all such cases it has been dis- 
solved and its ring-leaders censured by the dynasty 
in ways that have had a pronounced psychological 
effect on all who participated in the deliberation of 
the representative body. 

The Reichstag, in December, 1913, protested 
vigorously in regard to the Zabern incident, that 
the military should brutally overrule the civil 
authorities. A vote of censure was passed, but 
the guilty soldiery, instead of being disgraced, were 
decorated and congratulated by the dynasty. What 
justice in such a case could be expected in a country 
where the army is placed ahead of the civil popu- 
lation, where an officer is a superman, not subject 
to bourgeois laws and regulations, where a iniiform 
and sabre command not only respect but homage, 
and where a rogue of a cobbler, by name Wilhelm 
Voigt, simply because he appeared in the stolen 
uniform of an army captain, could in 1906 so over- 
awe the Burgomaster of Kopenick (a small town 
near Berlin) and his secretary, that they handed 
over to the rascal the contents of the town treasury ? 

Germany is ruled by a despot and a tyrant, and 
the Reichstag as it exists today is the wraith of 
an outrageous joke played on the German people 
by their Iron Chancellor. The subsidized writers 
of Germany are extremely careful to negative the 
idea that the German people have ever obtained 
any rights from their rulers by insisting upon 
them. Prof. Delbriick says, "In Germany, popu- 
lar representation arose because the government 
summoned it, and placed it side by side with itself," 
and Prof. Lamprecht adds, "The intention was to 
win by this means the support of the multitude of 
enthusiasts from German unity on behalf of a 
I*russianized central administration." The Reich- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 85 

stag exists in name as a representative body; it is 
said to cooperate with government. In reality it 
has no sovereign power and is the mere tool and the 
despised slave of the government, — which is the 
dynasty. The German Reichstag is the dynasty 
camouflaged; — a democratic mask of an absolute 
despotism. Occasionally a German writer openly 
says that the German people have as much voice 
in government as they are capable of exercising 
with wisdom, and Prince von Biilow in Imperial 
Germany writes, "It is an old mistake to want to 
gauge the concern of the nation in political affairs 
solely by the rights granted to the representatives 
of the people." 

The German Emperor is the Empire in inter- 
national matters; he has been given the right as 
President of the German "Eternal League" to 
declare "defensive" war and conclude peace, to 
enter into alliances and treaties and to accredit 
and appoint envoys. Such power goes only with 
a dynasty and makes for international discord and 
the enslaving of a people. The German Emperor 
is also empowered at any time, within any part of 
the Federal domain, to extinguish the civil authori- 
ties, the liberty of the press and free speech, pro- 
hibit meetings and travel, and entrust the military 
authorities (i. e., himself and his army), with the 
entire political life of the nation. This state of 
internal restriction and military domination, Burg- 
frieden, has existed in Germany since July 31st, 
1914. Hermann Fernau, commenting on the abso- 
lutism of the German Emperor, has fittingly said 
that the first nineteen articles of the German Im- 
perial Constitution could be replaced by a single 
sentence, "The German Emperor is the God- 
appointed absolute Lord of Germany." 



IV. 



The Dynastic Religion of War 

PAN-GERMANISM is a dynastic idea, which 
needs militarism for its realization; but the 
twentieth century represents an era of world 
progress that has outgrown and developed beyond 
dynasties; therefore the present bitter war is be- 
tween the democracies of the present and the future, 
and the feudal despotisms of the past. The peoples 
of the civilized world are by nature democratic, and 
the rallying cry of the citizens of the Great Repub- 
lics of the United States and France, "Liberty, 
Equality and Fraternity," appeals to every think- 
ing, rational mind and human heart. The spirit of 
democracy with its sovereignty in the people is the 
antithesis of the usurped power of a dynasty with 
its absolutism, its despotism and its tyrannous 
egoism. Dynasties war against democracy, and 
democracy against dj^nasties. In such a war of 
the egoistic one against the higher interests of the 
many, it is indeed surprising that there are coun- 
tries where the one still despotically rules over the 
masses, notwithstanding the fact that the masses, 
when they think and reason for themselves and are 
given an atmosphere of freedom in which to express 
their thoughts, are positively democratic and anti- 
dynastic. 

The HohenzoUern and Hapsburg dynasties are 
maintained in power by armies, and the armies are 
officered by Junkers, the nobility and upper classes 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 87 

— men who are in every respect satisfactory to the 
ruling dynasties. Pan-Germanism is the world 
conquest creed of the Prussian dynasty. It is 
"world power or downfall" which, properly inter- 
preted, means world power for Germany, or down- 
fall of the dynasty. It is a triumphant despotism or 
the coming of democracy born of mihtary defeat; 
it is a world-conquering dynasty occupying the peo- 
ple's thoughts and expending their energies in 
foreign wars, with the glitter, pride and glory of 
victory and national aggrandizement, or the birth 
of a democracy which by revolution would over- 
throw the dynasty at home; it is world power for 
the dynasty with the enslavement of the people, or 
human power and freedom for the people, with the 
downfall of the dynasty. 

The dynasty of Prussia — saved by Bismarck 
from abdication during the democratic awakening 
of Europe — mounted to power by three aggressive 
Prussian wars, and warring Prussia became the 
dominant power in Central Europe, with her King 
crowned as German Emperor — the potential lord 
over all the Teuton peoples. The dynasty stands 
for hereditary rights; it is defended by Junkers, 
nobles and the older ruling classes, for if the 
hereditary privilege, power, political and social 
standing and "divine right" of the dynasty were 
successfully attacked, their own exclusiveness and 
hereditary ruling power in the smaller field would 
not only be challenged, but would be inevitably 
overthrown. 

The French Revolution was primarily aimed at 
the Junkers and ruHng aristocracy of France, 
rather than against a weak King, but Louis XVI 
preferred to stand by the nobles instead of with the 



88 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

people, and the contemplated change from an abso- 
lute despotism, i. e., a tyrannous dynasty to a 
Limited Monarchy under a Constitution, ended in 
the creation of a democracy with the dynasty over- 
thrown, the King and Queen murdered, and the 
sovereignty abiding absolutely in the people. 

In Germany the dynasty is supported by the 
lesser dynastic, privileged classes — by the Junkers 
who deify might, worship the sword and who look 
to the Kaiser as their leader in the upholding of 
hereditary privilege. Germany, to the Prussian 
Junkers and nobles, is primarily a military state, 
and they are feudal barons who, for their own 
selfish ends, express allegiance to their feudal lord. 
Prussian Junkers are opposed to commerce, trade 
and industry that raise up men of wealth to com- 
pete with them in national power; they are also 
antagonistic to genius unless it can be controlled or 
subsidized to uphold their special interests which 
depend upon the dynasty for their existence. 
Prussianism has corrupted Germany with its 
essential militarism and Machiavellianism; and as 
Prussia has become the dominant power of the 
Teuton people, it now seeks a vaster territory of 
influence; it rallies the German people by false 
teachings under its banner, and seeks to attain to 
world dominion by a ruthless war of aggression. 

Every German is taught through the dynasti- 
cally -controlled state channels of school, church and 
press that war is necessary and beautiful. In the 
Jnng-Deutschland, the official organ of Young 
Germany (1913), we read the sort of doctrine that 
is taught German boys of our Boy Scout age, "War 
is the noblest and holiest expression of human 
activity. . . . For us, too, the gi'eat joyful 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 89 

hour of battle will strike. . . . Still and deep 
in the German heart must live the joy of battle and 
the longing for it. Let us ridicule to the utmost 
the old women in trousers who fear war and deplore 
it as cruel and hideous. No; war is beautiful. Its 
august sublimity elevates the human heart beyond 
the earthly and the commonplace. In the Heavenly 
Palace above sit the heroes, Frederick the Great, 
and Bliicher, and all the men of action — the great 
Emperor William I, Moltke, Roon, Bismarck are 
there as well, but not the old women who would take 
away our joy in war. When here on earth a battle 
is won by German arms and the faithful dead 
ascend to heaven, a Potsdam lance corporal will call 
the guard to the door and 'Old Fritz' (Frederick 
the Great), springing from his golden throne will 
give the command to present arms. This is the 
heaven of Young Germany." This is a typical 
Teuton picture of the realm beyond. It shows that 
the real underlying religion of Germany is the 
worship of Odin, not of Christ, and that the here- 
after is still the Valhalla of the primitive, barbaric 
and blood-thirsty Teuton tribes of the North. 

Nietzsche, in Thus Spake Zarathustra, says, "Ye 
shall love peace as a means of new wars, and the 
short peace better than the long. I do not advise 
you to work, but to fight. I do not advise you to 
compromise and make peace, but to conquer. . . . 
Let your labor be fighting and j^our peace victory. 
You say that a good cause will sanctify even war! 
I tell you that a good war will sanctify any cause!" 
This is Nietzscheism, and Germans have the 
effrontery to call it philosophy (which means the 
search after and love of truth) ; it is primarily 
fundamental indifference to the truth of first 



90 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

premises, which, Fernau says, "no logical straight- 
forwardness and superimposed bulk of intellectual- 
ism can conceal," and he adds, "The result of such 
thinking is the invasion of Belgium." 

In The Joyous Wisdom, Neitzsche says, "We 
children of the future ... do not by any 
means think it desirable that the kingdom of 
righteousness and peace should be established on 
the earth." (Here is positive and unmistakable 
repudiation of the teachings of Christ.) "We 
rejoice in all men who, like ourselves, love danger 
of war and adventure. . . . We count our- 
selves among the conquerors; we ponder over the 
need of a new order of things, even of a new slavery 
— for every strengthening and elevation of the type 
man also involves a new form of slavery." Every 
step of additional strengthening of the brute power 
of a man means, according to Prussian immoralism, 
with its physical deification, a corresponding sub- 
ordination of a weaker fellow being ; every triumph 
of a militaristic Prussia means the humiliation and 
enslaving of a Belgium or a Poland, or a Roumania, 
or a Serbia. According to the Prussian conception 
of Nietzsche's doctrine of survival there would ulti- 
mately be only one nation, and that "the noble race" 
of Teutonic supermen in which "there lurks unmis- 
takably the beast of prey, the blond beast, lustfully 
roving in search of booty and victory" (Genealogy 
of Morals). This race of perfected beasts would, 
in turn, be ruled by a super-brute, so the ideal of 
Prussianism is not only serfdom for the world out- 
side Germany, but the enslavement by the dynasty 
of all "supermen" within the victorious realm. 
Prussianism is, therefore, human slavery, 

Nietzsche admits the great debt that modern 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 91 

Prussianism of the HohenzoUern-Bismarck type 
owes to the mihtaristic and unscrupulous upstart, 
Napoleon I: "We owe it to Napoleon . . . 
that several warlike centuries, which have not had 
their like in past history, may now follow one an- 
other — in short, that we have entered upon the 
classical Age of War, at the same time scientific 
and popular, on the grandest scale" (as regards 
means, talents and discipline) "to which all coming 
millenniums will look back with envy and awe as a 
work of perfection, for the national movement, out 
of which this martial glory springs, is only the 
Napoleonic reaction and would not have existed 
without him;" and again in speaking of Napoleon's 
reestablishment of oligarchy, Nietzsche says, "Was 
the greatest of all antitheses of ideals thereby rele- 
gated at acta for all time? Or only postponed — 
postponed for a long time? May there not take 
place at some time or other a much more awful, 
much more carefully prepared flaring up of the old 
conflagration? Further: Should not one wish that 
consummation with all one's strength — 'will it one's 
self — demand it one's self?" 

In Human, All Too Human, Nietzsche says, 
"Kultur can by no means dispense with passions, 
vice and mahgnities. . . . It is nothing but 
fanaticism to expect very much from humanity 
when it has forgotten how to wage war," and he 
goes on to say that "the rough energy of the camp, 
the deep, impersonal hatred, the cold-bloodedness 
of murder" are necessary to make a great people. 
In the same work Nietzsche unconsciously utters an 
anti-dynastic truth when he says, "Much that is 
dreadful and inhuman in history, much that one 
hardly likes to believe, is mitigated by the reflection 



92 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

that the one who commands and the one who carries 
out are different persons — the former does not 
behold the sight, therefore does not experience the 
strong impression on the imagination; the latter 
obeys a superior and therefore feels no responsi- 
bihty." In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche feels 
that even if the rulers and leading powers in Ger- 
man ruthlessness do not come directly in contact 
with their inhuman atrocities, which inevitably 
accompany the application of the doctrines of im- 
moralism and animahsm, there must needs be, in 
the case of commanders and philosophers (the 
thinkers and explainers), a transvaluation of values 
under the new pressure and hammer of which a 
conscience should be steeled and a heart trans- 
formed to brass so as to bear the weight of such 
responsibility." 

Treitschke, the politico-historian and panegj^rist 
of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was in his lifetime 
(1834-1896) as blind to the light of truth as he 
was physically deaf. In Politics he said, "The 
appeal to arms will be valid until the end of his- 
tory, and therein lies the sacredness of war . . . 
without war there could be no state;" "war is the 
greatest factor in the furtherance of culture;" "war 
is both justifiable and moral . . . the ideal of 
perpetual peace is not only impossible but immoral 
as well;" "God above us will see to it that war shall 
always recur as a terrible medicine for a diseased 
humanity" — war, the medicine, but Prussianized- 
Germany, the only doctor. Treitschke maintained 
that Germany should forcibly acquire Holland and 
Belgium, that Germany should become Europe and 
dominate the seas into the bargain, that Germany's 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 93 

"Ministry of colonization must make up for lost 
time." 

Treitschke gloried in the fact that Germany is 
Prussian, and when he says that the Germans let 
the primitive tribes decide whether they should be 
put to the sword or thoroughly Germanized, he is 
really describing, not so much the attitude of the 
blond conquering Northmen in regard to the more 
ancient inhabitants of Germany, as that of Prussia 
with respect to other German peoples, and of Prus- 
sianized-Germany in regard to foreign nations, 
Prussia with Machiavellian subtlety offered the 
independent states, such as Saxony, Hanover, 
Bavaria, etc., peace or war, union with harmony or 
union by force ; but in any event, under the glove of 
Bismarck was a cruel, arrogant, mailed fist, con- 
trolled by a mind that thought only of Prussia and 
Prussia's Hohenzollern dynastj?-, and that was 
determined to make of the German states a United 
Empire which would be absolutely dominated by 
Prussia, by the Prussian dynasty, by the Prussian 
Junkers and by the Prussian army. 

"Cruel as these processes of transformation may 
be," said Treitschke, "they are a blessing for hu- 
manity. It makes for health that the nobler races" 
(the Prussians or the Prussianized Germans) 
"should absorb the inferior stock" (first the non- 
Prussian Germans and then the foreigners). And 
again, "The German is a hero born, and believes 
that he can hack and hew his way through life." 
This is the Prussian ideal, to "hack and hew." The 
expression is crude and primitive and the senti- 
ment even more so. There is nothing heroic unless 
the actuating motive is worthy; there can be no 
hiS?i>ic qualities in a brutal barbarian who, in a 



94 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

spirit of lust, cruelly "hacks and hews" his way 
through life, destroying all that is most human, 
cultured and real, and combatting all that is most 
spiritual in life. Count von Moltke in his letter to 
Bluntschli, December 11th, 1880, said, "Perpetual 
peace is a dream and it is not even a beautiful 
dream; war forms part of the eternal order in- 
stituted by God." Around this text, modern 
Prussian writers have attempted to found a phil- 
osophy in which war is idealized, but the funda- 
mental thought is Stirner-Nietzschian and Treit- 
schke-Bernhardian. 

An American General said, "War is hell;" a 
British General, who never tasted defeat, prayed 
that the world might be saved from the horrors of 
more wars. In contrast to this Anglo-Saxon belief 
— a conviction held by all religious and cultured 
peoples — Prusso-Germans preach that "war is 
heaven," and they pray that Young- Germany may 
be blessed by experiencing its horrors. In the 
Jung Deutschland Post (1913), a paper for 
juvenile Germans, we read, "We Germans and 
Christians are also taught by honor and duty that 
there can be no peace for the souls of the dead or 
the living until a conflict is settled by the victory 
and the triumph of our arms. . . . Pagan 
belief and Christian faith alike teach us that we 
should give our lives for our brothers, for our 
fatherland, for our Kaiser and his Empire, for the 
victory of our arms, in order that there may be 
peace for the living and rest for the dead." If 
German arms are not victorious, then the souls of 
all dead Germans remain in purgatory or go to hell. 
But why, if "perpetual peace is a dream and not 
even a beautiful dream," do German souls desire 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 95 

peace and rest? and why is peace for the living 
mentioned as the desirable fruits of victory? If 
"war is the most august and sacred expression of 
human activity," and "the holiest thing on earth," 
perpetual war should be desired and war should be 
waged to bring more war, but never peace. The 
youth of Germany are taught that heaven is reached 
through war; this is not the Christian heaven but 
Valhalla, the abode of heavy drinking and gorman- 
dizing, of quarrelsome and perpetually fighting 
German warriors — a mystical place long since dis- 
carded in ancient mythology for a better and more 
spiritual Asgard, where nobility of character is 
revered rather than brutal power. 

It is sacrilege to connect the name of the peace- 
loving Christ with the German religion of Odin — 
the god of war; the uttermost depths of profanity 
are reached when the youth of a land are deliber- 
ately and maliciously taught that Christ, the great 
democrat, who lived to do away with all war and 
hideous discord, to make all men brothers, and sons 
of God, is a tribal god of war, who, like Yahweh of 
Old, reveled in the atrocities and brutal power of 
His intolerant chosen people. 

Prof. Werner Sombart, of Berlin, in Hucksters 
and Heroes, says that only in war are virtues given 
a chance to unfold, and only in war do the truly 
heroic come into play. "It seems to us who are 
filled with the spirit of militarism, that war is a 
hoty thing, the holiest thing on earth," and he de- 
plores the fact that commercial people cannot seem 
to get the militarist's view-point that "war is holy." 
Fritz Bley, the German journalist and author, 
rejoices in the fact that Germans are overcoming 
their reallv human feelinojs and the effects of true 



96 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

culture and civilization. He feels that the old Ger- 
manic tribal spirit gives the true kultur, the bar- 
barian spirit of brute force and lust, of murder and 
plunder. "No more to be called the people of poets 
and thinkers in the contemptuous sense in which 
foreigners have given us the name . . . but to 
be again what our ancestors were, a people of deeds 
— that is the thought that thrills through all our 
more recent popular verse 

We are of the race of the thunderer; 
We will possess the earth; 
That is the old right of the Germans — 
To win land with the hammer 

Forward then into the fight for German auns 
and 'far as the hammer is hurled let the earth be 
ours.' " 

This is Prusso-German kultur — the will to 
power — the deification of the power of brute force 
coupled with Machiavellian falseness, deceit and 
treachery; the development of lust and appetency 
for dominion ; the doctrine of racial superiority and 
supremacy — German world conquest; the ex- 
clusiveness of the German people. — the anointed 
and chosen of God, destined to wreak the vengeance 
of God (who is a German God) upon all other 
peoples. Prusso-German kultur is, therefore, 
anti-Christian, anti-religious and inhuman; it has 
no place for democracy, for the doctrine of brother- 
hood, for human sympathy or for the spirit and 
soul of the world. Prusso-German kultur is 
merely unrestrained, arrogant militarism; it is the 
spirit of the brigand, the outlaw, the pirate, the 
highwayman, the burglar and the murderer. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 97 

nationalized and deified as well as justified in its 
nationalism. 

"Thor stood at the midnight end of the world. 

His battle mace flew from his hand: 
'So far as my clangorous hammer I've hurled 

Mine are the sea and the land !' 
And onward hurtled the mighty sledge 

O'er the wide, wide earth, to fall 
At last on the Southland's furthest edge 

In token that his was all. 
Since then 'tis the joyous German right 

With the hammer, lands to win. 
We mean to inherit world-wide might 

As the Hammer-God's kith and kin." 

— Felix Dahn (1878). 

Prince von Biilow in Imperial Germany said, 
"The voice of our national conscience tells us what 
German militarism really is — the best thing we 
have achieved in the course of our national develop- 
ment as a state and a people." And Prof. Ostwald 
affirms that German militarism "actually repre- 
sents the highest degree of civilization yet de- 
veloped." Klaus Wagner in Krieg (1906) says, 
"The idea of war is the child of healthy egoism, 
which is honest to the marrow of its bones, is 
ashamed of nothing in nature . . . but is the 
basis of all kultur, of all morality ; unless we choose 
to shut our eyes to the necessity of evolution, we 
must recognize the necessity of war. We must 
accept war which will last as long as development 
and existence; we must accept eternal war." And 
again he voices the Pan-German doctrine of sur- 
vival by brute force when he says, "War makes 
room for the competent at the expense of the un- 
sound" (and all foreign nations are branded as 
unsound and perverted) . "War is the source of all 
good growth." 



98 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

The idea of war as a necessity to German growth 
and development, has been placed and steadily kept 
before the German people by the Hohenzollern, 
subsidized Intellectuals. In Germany at the be- 
ginning of the Twentieth Century (1900) we read, 
"We must fix our minds incessantly upon war ; may 
the first ten to twenty years of the twentieth- 
century bring it to us, for we have great need of it." 
This prayer has been answered by the German 
Government, i. e., the Hohenzollern dynasty, and 
the German people have been given the war which 
they have been taught to desire, while the truly 
cultured people of other lands have been almost 
prostrated by the horrors of the most atrocious, dia- 
bolical and senseless war in history. Hermann 
Bahr, the Berlin writer and a "German patriot," 
expressed the quite prevalent Prusso-German view- 
point when he wrote: "I am going to pronounce a 
blessing on this war, the blessing which is on all lips, 
for we Germans, no matter in what part of the 
world we are, all bless and bless again this world- 
war." 

The German people represent the acme of kultur. 
Whatever the German people do as a nation is 
right. Why is it right? Simply because the Ger- 
man people do it, and have the physical or brutal 
power to do it. German kultur is therefore the 
development of brute force; it is the kultur of the 
jungle, the kultur of the fang and claw which, when 
applied by the German, is "humanized" into the 
heroic doctrine of "hack and hew." Tannenberg, in 
Gross-Deutschland (1911), said, "The German 
people is always right because it is the German 
people and numbers eighty-seven million souls." 

It has been said that "the word kultur, like Pom- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 99 

pey's statue of old, will for many generations drip 
blood." It is kultur with its "philosophy" of 
"scraps of paper;" "Necessity knows no law;" 
"Might is right and right is decided by war," put 
into practice by a dynastically-enslaved and author- 
itatively-driven people, that has caused four-fifths 
of the human race to declare that Germany is a 
menace to civilization, culture, world progress, and 
human happiness. Dr. McElroy has well said, 
"The faith of treaties is the only solid foundation 
upon which a real civilization can be erected. 
Treaties are the records of national faith, and where 
there is no faith the people perish. The world moves 
upward, not by the stroke of battle, as Bernhardi 
would have us believe, but by the sure processes of 
thought, by the cooperation of generous souls, by 
the domination of spiritual ideals." 

Maximilian Harden, in Die Zukunft (August 
19th, 1911), bemoaned the fact that Germany was 
becoming more and more great and prosperous 
through peace ; he fears for the future of the people 
if the sword remains sheathed. "The noblest weapon 
rusts, if its use is too long restricted to reviews and 
parades ;" but he also warns of the effect of mental 
and spiritual culture upon kultur, and adds, "every 
ascent to a higher mental culture impairs the bar- 
baric energy of warriors and encumbers them with 
scruples which dampen their joyous courage." Hu- 
man culture, which is the growth and development 
of the spirit of man, is the antithesis of Prusso-Ger- 
man kultur of ignorance, passion and brute force. 
The arch-enemy of Prussianism is the human spirit. 

Prof. Ernst Hasse, the fanatical expansionist, 
would strive at once to make the European Conti- 
nent and the immediate waters and islands, Ger- 



100 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

man, and ultimately the whole world, German; he 
claims that war is the father of the Prusso-German 
people, and "It will be the father of the new Ger- 
man race of the future." War, he affirms, is to the 
German only a means to an end, and that end is, of 
course, the subjugation of all other peoples. Hasse 
believes that the physically strong are immoral if 
they do not forcibly take from the weak, and in The 
Future of the German National Spirit (1908) he 
says, "Nothing is more immoral than to consider 
and talk of war as an immoral thing. . . . There 
is nothing more moral than the collective egoism, 
the self-conserving instinct of nations." He means 
of course the intolerant and avaricious, lustful spirit 
— the brutal and animalistic. 

Prof . Jakob Burckhardt (1818-1897) says,"War 
is held to be a divine institution, a law of the uni- 
verse present in all nature . . . The warrior is 
filled with the enthusiasm of destruction; wars 
purify the atmosphere like thunderstorms;" and 
this same thought is expressed in still greater ful- 
ness by Ernst Lasaulx (1805-1861), the archaeolo- 
gist and historian, in his Philosophie der Geschichte 
(1856) . Burckhardt also maintains that a people's 
real strength or power comes from war, and that 
only through war can they become conscious of their 
full strength. "We must, therefore, reckon with 
war as a necessary factor toward higher develop- 
ment;" "A long peace not only leads to enervation, 
but allows of the existence of a multitude of pitiful, 
trembling, miserable creatures . . . who cling 
fast to life with loud cries about their right to exist, 
block the way for real strength, make the air fetid 
and altogether defile the blood of the nation. War 
brings real strength into honor again." 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 101 

Like all other writers of the Reventlow-Bern- 
hardi-Keim school, Burckhardt denounces peace 
and deifies war, and yet inconsistently says that war 
is to be waged in order to obtain peace. Therefore 
a means which of itself, we are told, is good, is to be 
used to obtain a result which is said to be evil. "As 
real might can alone guarantee the endurance of 
peace and security, and as war is the best test of real 
might, war contains the promise of future peace." 
According to Prussianism, a nation will be great 
and worthy as long as it is fighting and conquering, 
but when all the world is subjugated and all other 
peoples of the earth are enslaved, then the dominant 
race cannot continue "great and worthy" unless 
they can find other worlds and other peoples to con- 
quer, transport their forces to some other planet 
and wage, not a Continental or world-war, but a 
universal war. Oskar Schmitz voiced the sentiment 
of Pan-Germans generally when he said (1915), 
"We must not look for permanent peace as a result 
of this war. May heaven defend Germany from 
that." 

Emperor Wilhelm II will be spared the sorrow 
of Alexander the Great — that there are no more 
worlds to conquer ; and the longer the present world- 
war continues, the less territory will the German 
Emperor have to show for his ruthless war of con- 
quest and world-dominion. The ambitions of both 
Alexander, the misnamed "Great," and Wilhelm II 
were far greater than their accomplishments. Alex- 
ander bemoaned the non-existence of other worlds 
while he could not even subjugate his immediate 
dominions, and his kingdom soon fell to pieces. In 
his attempt to dominate the earth, Wilhelm II finds 
himself unable to hold sway even over his German 



102 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Allies and those peoples which he has dominated 
through puppet Germanic kings and through eco- 
nomic pressure, military power, threats and prom- 
ises of advantage; and it is only a question of time 
until he is robbed of absolute power over his own 
people. 

Lasaulx says, "The sight of blood and wounds 
steels the nerves of the soul, the horrors of war stim- 
ulate the spirit so that instead of falseness and cow- 
ardice of enervation, the old heroic virtues are re- 
stored." This sentiment is peculiarly Prussian, but 
it has been taught by militaristic nations of all time. 
It was the creed of the ancient Persians; it was 
developed to its greatest power by the Spartans, 
and later taught to a lesser degree by the Athenians, 
Greeks and Romans. Martial bravery and absolute 
obedience, coupled with indifference to all suffer- 
ing, peril and death, are demanded of a military 
people. Physical brawn and skill are deified; the 
higher mental and spiritual attributes of a cultured 
man are either scorned or condemned. To fight 
well in an aggressive and ruthless war of conquest, 
man must be a brute, therefore animalistic and 
purely physical powers are extolled, but the higher 
qualities of the mind and soul which have raised man 
above the animal world are condemned and sup- 
pressed by the ruling powers. There is no place 
in a lustful, cruel war of conquest for human sym- 
pathy, manly pity and uprightness of mind, or for 
the expression of universal truth, justice, tolerance 
and spiritual religion with its prime demand of uni- 
versal loyalty to mankind as brothers, and to God, 
the Father of all. 

Goltz has said, "War is not a work of charitj^ and 
in the soldier's heart there is no compassion. The 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 103 

soldier must be hard. Grow hard warriors !" This 
is a favorite saying of the Prussian military leaders 
and Hindenberg, Ludendorff, Mackensen, etc., 
have all repeatedly urged the German troops "to 
be hard," — not brave, but hard, and the hardness 
demanded is not only indifference to suffering, but 
the positive expression of inhimian cruelty. Tan- 
nenberg (1911) wrote, "War must leave nothing to 
the vanquished but their eyes to weep with ; modera- 
tion on our part would be only madness." 

General Julius V. Hartmann (1817-1878), in 
Military Necessity and Humanity, wrote, "Whoso- 
ever has crossed a great battlefield and has shud- 
dered in the depths of his soul at all the horrors con- 
fronting him, will have found new strength and 
exaltation in the thought that here the whole tragic 
gravity of military necessity is regnant, and here a 
justifiable passion has done its work," and Karl A. 
Kuhn, in JDie Wahren Ursachen des Weltkrieges 
(1914), says, "Over the blood of the fallen glows 
the flame of poetic enthusiasm. A war without dead 
and wounded is a life without work, without aim 
and without hopef 

In Otfried Nippold's German Chauvinism we 
read an extract from the Berliner neueste Nachrich- 
ten, Dec. 24, 1912, which says, "War is not only a 
factor, but the main factor in true, genuine kultur, 
— not only its creator, but its preserver," and Fry- 
man says, "Whoever loves his people . . . must 
yearn for war as the awakener of all that is good, 
natural and strong in the nation." Ludwik Gi^mi- 
plowicz, in Social Philosophy in Outline (1910), 
says, "Every achievement of kultur and of the 
human intelligence is only a means to more barbar- 
ous processes of war," and ridiculing the idea of 



104 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

pacifistic peoples who have seen in the progress and 
development of human intelligence an ultimate 
guarantee of world peace, he quotes to substantiate 
his general statement that "no sooner are airships 
invented than the German Military Staff set to 
work to devise methods of utilizing them as means 
of destruction." 

Gen. Friedrich Bernhardi said in 1912 that a 
European or world-war was inevitable; if Ger:- 
many should be defeated such a deplorable event 
"would check the general progress of mankind in its 
healthy development, for which a flourishing and 
expanding Germany is the essential condition." 
German kultur — ^which is not only barbaric but 
savage, and the deification of the physical at 
the expense of the free, mental and spiritual — 
alone can save the world and permit of its growth 
in harmony with nature's great plan; therefore in 
the "Next War" — ^now being waged — Germany 
fights not only for selfish aggrandizement and for 
the realization of world-wide ambitions, not only 
for power, territory and tribute, but "for the 
highest interests ... of mankind." Bern- 
hardi also wrote, "The efforts directed toward the 
abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, 
but absolutely immoral, and must be stigmatized as 
unworthy of the human race. . . . The weak 
nation is to have the same right to live as the power- 
ful and vigorous nation ! The whole idea represents 
a presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws 
of development." 

A people ruled by a dynasty are a military peo- 
ple. A people that are universally educated to 
wage war, grow to desire war. Pastor Baumgarten 
— ^the clerical champion of the Lusitania outrage — 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 105 

says: "If we are to carry on the warlike educa- 
tion of our people — and we are resolved to do so — 
then we by this very fact affirm our constant readi- 
ness again to enter a war as soon as honor, growth, 
or the expansive tendencies rooted in the inmost 
nature of our people, demand." Rudolf Eucken 
asserts that "We (Germans) have a right to say 
that we form the soul of humanity, and that the 
destruction of the German nature would rob world- 
history of its deepest meaning." Brutal physical 
power and the "right of might" are deified by Ger- 
many's most famous divines and "philosophers," as 
well as scientists, educators and militarists. 

Bernhardi laughs to scorn all the pacific efforts of 
spiritually-minded people in the direction of arbitra- 
tion and world peace, as long as nations continue 
their policy of universal military conscription and 
preparation for war. "We can, fortunately, assert 
the impossibility of efforts after peace ever attaining 
their ultimate object in a world bristling with arms, 
where a strong and natural egoism still directs the 
policy of most countries." Bernhardi glories in the 
fact that war will prevail as long as peoples are pre- 
pared — equipped and trained to fight — and have 
ambitions to acquire that which rightly belongs to 
others. General Keim at a meeting of the 
Wehrverein in Cassel, February 6th, 1913, said, 
"War is as inevitable as the forces of nature; it is 
for the most part an ineluctable, elementary hap- 
pening ; it is an irresistible daemonic power, forcing 
itself upon us, against which all written treaties, all 
peace conferences and humanitarian agitations 
come pitifully to wreck." 

Hans Paul Wobzogen (born 1848), a well 
known German writer and music critic, and a lead- 



106 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ing Wagnerian, says in Thoughts in War-time 
(1915), "Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven signify 
for us Germans a spiritual rebirth." But these 
men were all cosmopolites with broad and deep 
•vision and universal sympathies ; they were geniuses, 
and today they live in the souls of men outside the 
German border far more than in the hearts of their 
fellow countrymen. Wobzogen glorifies the spirit 
of these German musicians and writers, all of whom 
were unalterably opposed to militaristic Prussian- 
ism, to aggressive wars of conquest and to per- 
nicious and exclusive nationalism and absolute 
dynasties; and after discussing real culture, he has 
the audacity to say, "Just imagine our humanity of 
today — I mean, of course, our German humanity — 
without its militarism. Non-German humanity 
gives some idea of what that would mean." The 
very thought of German "humanity" degenerating 
to the level of that of a cultured and democratic 
nation, is horribly repellant to him. But Wob- 
zogen, the apostle of culture, in reality a champion 
of barbaric German kultur, sinks to the lowest 
depths when he says, "Our long years of peace, full 
of honest, but, alas! also of dishonest work, had 
brought us no blessing. We breathed again when 
the war came." Work, with mind and soul develop- 
ment amidst the peaceful conditions demanded by 
Bach, Goethe, Schiller and Beethoven, is "dishonest 
work" and brings no blessing. The work of 
destruction, of avaricious and ruthless warfare, of 
plunder and murder, is apparently "honest" work, 
which brings its great reward of national aggrand- 
izement of the stronger and more brutal, at the 
expense of the physically weaker, the more cultured 
and ethical. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 107 

The German people in the Great World- War 
have given the nations of the world an illustration 
of the difference between culture and kultur. 
Civilization depends on culture, which is a natural 
growth and development of the soul of man — that 
which is real and spiritual. Kultur is physical, 
materialistic and selfish; it is a knowledge void of 
wisdom — form void of real substance. Kultur is 
the deification of flesh and repudiation of spirit; it 
is atavistic, throwing man backward through millen- 
niums of time to the brutal stage of evolution. 
There is far more culture today among the most 
savage people than among the Germans obsessed 
with the passion of hatred, murder, plunder and 
conquest. If the most primitive peoples were to 
assemble on the German battle fronts today and 
behold the hideous scenes of ruthless destruction 
and inhuman brutality, they would exclaim in con- 
temptuous derision, "Voild voire celehre civiliza- 
tion."* This, then, is the culture of a professedly 
Christian nation that has sent missionaries through- 
out "heathen" lands to lead the people of darkness 
into spiritual light ! 

The German War Book demands that the Ger- 
man soldier "guard himself against humanitarian 
notions," for "certain severities are indispensable to 
war," and he is also told that "to employ ruthless- 
ness" with "intimidation is . . . not only a 
right but a duty." Gen. Hartmann wrote, "It is a 
gratuitous illusion to suppose that modern war does 
not demand far more brutality, far more violence 
. . . than was formerly the case;" "The enemy 
state must not be spared the poverty, distress and 
wretchedness of war ; these are practically useful in 
shattering its energy and subduing its will;" 



108 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

"Whenever a national war breaks out, terrorizing 
becomes a necessary military principle. Terrorism 
is . . . useful to keep the masses of a con- 
quered people in a state of obedience," and again, 
"The warrior has need of passion. It must not 
. . . be condemned as a regrettable consequence 
of battle, nor must we seek to restrain and curb it." 
A German soldier is taught to be a ruthless, brutal 
fighter; it matters not how chivalrously the enemy 
fights, it matters not whether the foreigner defends 
his home and loved ones from the invasion and 
desecration of German hordes, the German warrior 
is urged to be "Hard and pitiless" in his work of 
destruction. "Even if there were no question of 
vengeance . . . the crime of opposing the de- 
velopment and expansion of Germany is so great, 
that the most trenchant measures are scarcely a 
sufficient punislmient for it." It is apparent, there- 
fore, that when a foreigner resists a German in- 
vasion and fights to protect his home-land, loved 
ones and all that he holds dear in the world, he 
thereby commits an unpardonable crime, and Ger- 
many has decreed that war against such patriots 
must be ruthless and terrible, until the fighting 
manhood is exterminated and the remainder of the 
people enslaved or humiliated unto death. 

One of the most rabid Pan-Germanists today is 
H. S. Chamberlain, born in England in 1855, the 
son of Admiral Chamberlain; he left England in 
1870, married Richard Wagner's daughter, and is 
today a naturalized German and an honored friend 
of the Kaiser. In Die Zwversicht (1915) Chamber- 
lain said that the "demon of baseness" — democracy, 
humanity, justice and pacifism. — ^" which has sub- 
dued other peoples was busily at work in Germanj'^ 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 109 

as well; ten years more and God would perhaps 
have found no one in the world to fight for him," 
and in Political Ideals (1916) he wrote that it 
would be necessary for Germany to "definitely 
break . . . Anglo-American ideals and mode 
of government," which considers that government 
is created for the benefit of the individual and not 
individuals for the state. 

Friedrich Lange, in Pure Germanism (1904), 
wrote that the peoples of the countries surrounding 
Germany "are either overripe fruits which the next 
storm maj^ bring to the ground, such as the Turks, 
Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, and a great part 
of the Slavs; or they are, indeed, proud of their 
race, but senile and artificial in their hultur, slow 
in their increase and boundless in their ambitions, 
like the French ; or confident in their unassailihility , 
like the British and Americans, they have forgotten 
justice and made their selfishness the measure of all 
things. Who knows whether we Germans are not 
the rod predestined for the chastening of these 
degenerates?" The French, the British, the Italian, 
and the American peoples, the nations with ideals, 
and representatives of democracy, justice and hu- 
manity on earth, know full well and will energeti- 
cally prove that Germany's rod is but a boomerang 
which, when aimed at the supposedly weaker and 
unprepared foes, will come back upon herself, 
winged with a fearful retribution. 

Chamberlain wrote in September, 1914, "God 
defend the noble cause of Deutschtu7n. There is 
no other hope for the future of humanity." In 
War Essays (1914) he said, "The German Army 
is the greatest institution for moral education in 
the world." The hideous atrocities and excesses of 



110 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

lust, passion and hatred, practiced generally in 
Belgium, France and Poland by German soldiers 
are ineffacable records of how successfully the state 
doctrine of Immoralism has been taught the rank 
and file. In Die Zuversicht (1915) Chamberlain 
says that the German army is a "Mving organiza- 
tion" which expresses "a thorough spiritual culture 
. . . such as the world has never seen." May it 
never be cursed with such another vision when this 
world crime is straightened out ! And he adds that 
the work of the troops bears witness to a ''spiritual 
development and moral responsibility to which no 
people in the world can show anything in the 
smallest degree comparable." Apparently "the 
severe nervous trouble" with which Chamberlain 
suffered in 1884 affected not only his mental poise 
and balance, but his sanity. In the same work he 
wrote, "On this planet, as a result of millenniums 
of development, has it come to this, that Germany 
has become an instrument of God, an indispensable 
irreplacable instrument of God? This question I 
ask, and I answer it in the affirmative." Chamber- 
lain states that the German character is "the spirit 
of pure humanity," and the mission of the Germans 
is "the ennoblement of the world. . . . Not to 
believe in this ... is folly, it is treason." 
And again, "He who does not believe in the divine 
mission of Germany had better hang himself, and 
rather today than tomorrow." In Political Ideals 
(1916) he says, "We may say, without extrava- 
gance or the least trace of self-exaltation: Ger- 
many is chosen. Germany is chosen for her own 
good and that of other nations to undertake their 
guidance. Providence has placed His appointed 
people" (the Germans) "at the appointed moment" 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 111 

(July- August, 1914) "ready for the appointed 
task" — to conquer the world and subjugate all 
other peoples. 

For half a century the Prusso- German people 
have been taught war and trained for war; the 
whole nation has become obsessed with a war mania. 
The German god is Odin, the barbaric god of ruth- 
less, bloody war, and his representative on earth is 
Kaiser Wilhelm II, the war lord. The religion of 
Germany is the religion of war; the ideals of the 
people are materialistic and egoistic. "World Con- 
quest" and "Dominion of the World" are their 
rallying cries, and plunder, loot and the enslaving 
of other peoples their passionate desire. When the 
German people deified war they repudiated the 
Christ of love and the Prince of peace; they set 
their faces firmly and definitely against all religion; 
they took a stand that is positively opposed to all 
that is highest, noblest and most worth-while in life, 
and they arraigned themselves in direct opposition 
to the soul of the world, to the human spirit and to 
the great and only universal God — the Creator and 
Father of all men. 



V. 



German State Morality 

ARISTOTLE rightly said that the same prin- 
ciples of morality are applicable to the indi- 
vidual and the nation, and that ethics is an 
essential part of politics. Other ancient philoso- 
phers also affirmed that politics, or the policy of a 
state and of its citizens in relation to other states 
and peoples, should be founded upon virtue, i. e., 
immutable truth, rightness and justice. This 
fundamental fact, the foundation of real religions 
and human brotherhood, was denied by early Chris- 
tian and medieval dynasties and hierarchies, and 
Niccolo dei Machiavelh of Florence (1469-1527), 
author of The Prince, voiced the prevalent senti- 
ments of the rulers of his day — state and church — 
when he maintained that in the relations of 
sovereigns, states and the "authoritative" ruling 
powers of peoples to each other, the ordinary and 
generally accepted rules of morality do not apply. 
"A prince . . . cannot observe all those rules 
of conduct in respect to which men are accounted 
good, being frequently obliged, in order to preserve 
his princedom, to act in opposition to good faith, 
charity, humanity and religion. He must, there- 
fore, keep his mind ready to shift as the winds and 
tides of Fortune turn, and, as I have already said, 
he ought not to quit good courses if he can help it, 
but should know how to follow evil courses if he 
must. ... A prince must have no other object 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 113 

and no other thought, and he must make nothing 
else his study than war, its preparation and con- 
duct. . . . Let the prince take care to conquer 
and to maintain his dominion ; the means will always 
be declared honorable and praised by everyone." 

Symonds, the historian of the Renaissance, in 
The Age of the Despots, says that Machiavelli was 
the first in modern times to formulate a theory of 
government in which the interests of the rulers are 
alone regarded, and which demands "a separation 
between statecraft and morality, which recognizes 
force and fraud among the legitimate means of 
attaining high political ends, which makes success 
alone the test of conduct and which presupposes the 
corruption, baseness and venality of mankind at 
large." The doctrine of Machiavelli was repudiated 
by the people of his time — the age of the base and 
cruel Cesare Borgia — and his name became a 
byword. What Italy and the Latins, Celts and 
Anglo-Saxons, however, have rejected and scath- 
ingly denounced, Prussia has accepted. Frederick 
the Great, a professed opponent of Machiavellism, 
developed the pernicious system of unscrupulous 
deceit to an unheard-of degree, Prusso-German 
Intellectuals incorporated the Italian's vicious 
teachings into their "philosophical" system, and 
Bismarck and Wilhelm II have shown the civilized 
world how to apply it in all its devilishness in the 
affairs of nations. 

Machiavellism is the doctrine of political cun- 
ning and duplicity, the art of trickery and sharp 
practice, and it maintains that all is fair in diplo- 
macy. Louis XI of France said, "He who knows 
not how to deceive, knows not how to govern." An 
ambassador to a foreign court in the early seven- 



114 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

teenth century (Sir Henry Wotton) well ex- 
pressed the evils of secret diplomacy when, on his 
departure, he remarked, "I go to lie abroad," and 
Cavour, the Italian patriot, exclaimed with con- 
science pangs, "If we did for ourselves what we do 
for our country, what scoundrels we should be." 

Machiavellism, in the mental realm, is usually 
allied to the doctrine of Brute Force, and "Might 
makes right," in the physical realm. By evolution, 
peoples and states are becoming more noble, more 
true, more ethical, more himiane and more spiritual ; 
open diplomacy is advocated and militarism is 
rightly denounced, but among the morally back- 
ward, mentally lethargic and stupid peoples, those 
dominated and enslaved by despotic rulers and 
"authorities," brute force is still deified, and where 
cruel might, and physical, soulless power is 
worshipped, there will also be found the animal 
cunning and the deception and treachery of 
Machiavellism. Truth is law and order. German 
diplomacy is falseness, mental chaos and spiritual 
anarchy. 

Treitschke, whose lectures and writings on Poli- 
tics have become the gospel of Pan-Germanism and 
Prussian Junkerdom, avowedly based his doctrine 
of force upon the teachings of Machiavelli, for he 
affirms that it was Machiavelli who first saw clearly 
that "the state is power." Treitschke says, "It is 
necessary, then, to choose between public and 
private morality, and since the state is power, its 
duties must rank differently from those of the indi- 
vidual. Many which are incumbent upon him have 
no claim upon it. The injunction to assert itself 
remains always absolute. Weakness must always 
be condemned as the most disastrous and despicable 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 115 

of crimes, the unforgivable sin of politics." As the 
state is power, "to care for this power," i. e., 
nurture, develop and use it, "is the highest moral 
duty of the state," and "of all political weaknesses, 
that of feebleness is the most abominable and 
despicable; it is the sin against the holy spirit of 
pohtics." The state as the ultimate good "cannot 
bind its will for the future over against other 
states," and international treaties are only obliga- 
tory "for such time as the state may find to be con- 
venient," i. e., profitable to itself. Treitschke 
openly advocates the practice of Machiavellism in 
German foreign affairs: "The brilliant Florentine 
was the first to infuse into politics the great idea 
that the state is power. The consequences of this 
thought are far-reaching. It is the truth, and those 
who dare not face it had better leave politics alone." 
And again, "It was Machiavelli who first laid down 
the maxim that when the state's salvation is at stake, 
there must be no inquiry into the purity of the 
means employed ; only let the state be secured, and 
no one will condemn them. . . . The states- 
man has no right to warm his hands with smug self- 
laudation at the smoking ruins of his fatherland 
and comfort himself by saying, 'I have never lied;' 
this is the monkish type of virtue." 

Treitschke preaches the gospel of mendacity and 
faithlessness. He believes that "A stock of in- 
herited conceptions of integrity and morality is a 
necessity for government," but such are principles 
to be placed in the foreground of international 
affairs with the idea to deceive, disarm apprehen- 
sions and hide the dagger of malicious falseness. 
In his "philosophical" system of Teutonism, Treit- 
schke modernizes the statement of the medieval 



116 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ambassador: "When a diplomat is guilty of obscur- 
ing facts in a diplomatic negotiation, he is think- 
ing of his own country," and therefore he is said to 
be nobly expressing his patriotism. Treitschke is 
inclined to denounce the man who, in trade, lies to 
his fellow country men and profits thereby to his 
fellow's detriment, but when a German deliberately 
lies to a foreigner, or a representative of the Ger- 
man Govermnent maliciously seeks to gain advan- 
tage over a foreign government by falseness and 
deceit, the actuating motive becomes moral and 
praiseworthy and is positively patriotic. Bismarck 
is extolled to the skies, not because he was honorable 
and true, but because he knew when it was policy 
to speak the truth and when advantage could be 
gained by lying. Bismarck artfully deceived and 
venomously Hed, and by so doing plunged his 
country into war; he falsified the "Ems Telegram," 
and France with outraged national honor and a 
weak King and government, was duped into declar- 
ing war against Prussia. Prussia won her battles 
with Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France 
(1870-71 ) ; and the German states became an empire 
(1871) around the dominant military and Machia- 
vellian Prussia; therefore, as Prussia benefited by 
the damnable lies and diplomatic treachery of her 
Minister, all the falseness and deceit were not onlj'^ 
justifiable, but laudable, and Bismarck's actions 
became the thoroughly justified quintessence of 
patriotism. 

Gen. Bernhardi, in Germany and the Next War 
(1912), said, "It is a persistent struggle for posses- 
sions, power and sovereignty that primarily governs 
the relations of one nation to another, and right is 
respected so far only as it is compatible with ad- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 117 

vantage. . . . The relations between two states 
must often be termed a latent war which is pro- 
visionally being waged in peaceful rivalry. Such 
a position justifies the employment of hostile 
methods, cunning and deception, just as war itself 
does;" and again, "Let it be the task of our diplo- 
macy so to shuffle the cards that we may be attacked 
by France, for then there would be reasonable 
prospect that Russia for a time would remain 
neutral. . . . But we must not hope to bring 
about this attack by waiting passively. Neither 
France, nor Russia, nor England need to attack in 
order to further their interests." 

Bernhardi maintains that the state's highest 
moral duty is to increase its power, and in so doing 
"the state is the sole judge of the morality of its 
own actions. It is in fact above morality, or, in 
other words, whatever is necessary is moral." 
Again we are told that the state is beyond senti- 
ment and the feelings of humanity, and if un- 
affected by spiritual aspirations or by ethical codes, 
prompted by the intuitive wisdom or conscience of 
man, "conditions may arise which are far more 
powerful than the most honorable intentions." 
Chivalry in war is a deplorable weakness, and 
magnanimity a crime. "The state is a law unto 
itself," and "weak nations have not the same right 
to live as powerful and vigorous nations." War, 
according to Bernhardi and his school, is "an ordin- 
ance set by God" and is "the highest function of 
the state;" to attempt to abolish war from the world 
would not only be "foolish but absolutely immoral." 
Bernhardi preaches that war is "a biological neces- 
sity," that "the living God will see to it that war 
will always recur as a terrible medicine for man- 



118 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

kind," but "might is . . . the supreme right, 
and the dispute as to what is right is decided by 
. , . war, which gives a biologically just 
decision." James M. Beck, commenting on the 
Treitschke-Bernhardi doctrine, pointedly says: 
"This means that the 42 centimeter howitzer is 
more moral than a gun of smaller calibre, and that 
the justice of God depends upon the superiority of 
Krupp to other ordnance manufacturers." 

Bismarck refused to wait passively for war with 
Denmark, Austria and France. In a real Machia- 
vellian sense, he deliberately planned a war with all 
three countries, one after the other. He used 
Austria as an ally to fight Denmark, then devilishly 
planned a quarrel with Austria over the fruits of 
the Danish war. France was goaded into hostilities 
with Prussia by the "blood and iron" Chancellor 
who, to attain his object, had to stoop to the 
lowest form of IMachiavellism — the falsifying of 
despatches. Bismarck, in 1870, found himself at 
the fork of the roads; he had either to resign as 
Minister, or cause a Franco-Prussian war so that 
his country could fight and win a "righteous" war 
in "self-defense." Bismarck did not hesitate, the 
conditions would not permit of "waiting passively." 
He schemed and deliberately deceived, to plunge 
Germany and France into war in order to save his 
own position as Prussian Minister, and at the same 
time to reahze his ambition of creating a united 
Germany, brought together by the sword and a 
victorious campaign against a foe, hated since the 
days of the humihation forced upon them by 
Napoleon I. 

The doctoring of the Ems telegram, and the 
sending of it to the press in a mutilated form, was a 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 119 

process of unscrupulous "editing" which, as Moltke 
said at the time, turned a note of parley into a note 
of defiance, and led directly to war. We are told 
that Bismarck and his accomplices in the deceit — 
Moltke and Boon — had been dejected and in 
despair because of foreign and internal affairs, 
when Bismarck received an innocent telegram which 
he promptly converted from a harmless and pacific 
communication into "a red rag to the Gallic bull." 
The spirits of the conspirators mounted rapidly; 
they knew that the forgery meant war, but they 
were overjoyed at the prospects of war and victory. 
"Our God of old still lives," shouted Boon, and 
Moltke smote his hand upon his breast and said, "If 
I may but live to lead our armies in such a war, then 
the devil may come directly afterwards and fetch 
away my old carcass." 

In the crisis of 1914, Wilhelm II of Germany 
and Francis Joseph I of Austria-Hungary did not 
believe in "waiting passively" for the European 
war which they willed and had planned. Wlien 
Serbia, Russia and France struggled manfully for 
peace, the Teuton governments sought to emulate 
Bismarck, and failing to goad these neighbor- 
nations into attacking them, they deliberately falsi- 
fied, reported hostilities and acts of aggression that 
never happened, and then self -righteously attacked 
their pacific neighbor-nations in "defense" of the 
fatherland. Bernhardi's "shuffling of the cards" 
was not enough to cause peace-loving nations to 
attack the Teuton peoples ; Berlin and Vienna had 
to have recourse to Bismarck's method of damnable 
falseness, and in order to produce a state of war, 
had to aggressively attack, while deceiving their own 



120 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

people by falsely claiming that France and Russia 
had commenced the hostilities. 

The "scrap of paper" treaty is a well estabUshed 
Prussian principle. Hegel said, "The fundamental 
proposition of international law remains a good 
intention while the actual situation, the relation 
established by the treaty is being continually shifted 
or abrogated." Treitschke, the disciple of Hegel, 
and Prussia's dominant political theorist, wrote that 
"All treaties are concluded on the tacit understand- 
ing that they are only effective until conditions 
change." And again, "No state can pledge its 
future to another. It knows no arbiter and draws 
up its treaties with this implied reservation. . . . 
Moreover, every sovereign state has the undoubted 
right to declare war at its pleasure, and is conse- 
quently entitled to repudiate its treaties." And 
again, "When a state recognizes that the existing 
treaties no longer express the actual political con- 
ditions, and when it cannot persuade other powers 
to give way b}^ peaceful negotiations, the moment 
has come when the nations proceed to the ordeal by 
battle. . . . War is justified because the great 
national personalities can suffer no compelling 
force superior to themselves, and because history 
must always be in constant flux; war, therefore, 
must be taken as part of the divinely-appointed 
order." If a nation desires to change or ignore a 
treaty, and is strong enough to enforce its will on 
neighbor-nations by military force, it acts well, for 
might is right, and God, according to the German 
belief, is always on the side of might — for might is 
supposedly German. 

Bismarck maintained that "No power is bound 
to sacrifice important interests of its o^^n on the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 121 

altar of faithfulness to an alliance." And he also 
remarked, "When Prussia's power is in question, I 
know no law." Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor and 
the builder of the German Empire, not only be- 
lieved in a policy of "blood and iron" and the 
jungle power of "fang and claw," but also in subtle, 
snake-like cunning and treachery. Wliere Prussia 
was concerned in relation to other peoples he knew 
no law, no principle, no honor. He gloried in his 
lying patriotism — the Ems despatch, which brought 
about the Franco-German war; and the Hohen- 
zoUern dynasty, Prussian Junkers and their sub- 
sidized intellectual bodyguard endorsed the devilish 
act and eulogized the mendacious and unscrupulous 
Machiavellian diplomat. "Blessed be the hand," 
wrote the German historian, Hans Delbriick, "that 
falsified the Ems despatch." 

Bismarck, in the Reichstag, after reviewing with 
complacency the profitable results of Prussia's 
deliberately-provoked wars against Denmark, Aus- 
tria and France, added the "pious" ejaculation — 
"We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the 
world." It is the spirit which inspired this boastful 
and arrogant speech which has so powerfulh^ stimu- 
lated Prussian Junkerism. The Junkers, who are 
medieval barons, must have a king-leader; these 
nobles hold power by "divine right," therefore they 
acknowledge that their king rules by hereditary 
privilege and "divine right." As the Kaiser rules by 
"the grace of God," it is necessary for the Hohen- 
zollerns and the Prussian Junkers to acknowledge 
the existence of a God, and they have also found it 
both potent and convenient to use the name of God 
to keep the masses enslaved and obedient to their 
selfish and inhuman wills. "We Germans fear 



122 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

God" means that the German people fear God and 
His anointed, His representative on earth — the 
Kaiser — who rules by "divine right," and also his 
lieutenants born as nobles to dominate the masses 
under the decrees of heaven. This spirit is dynastic 
and anti-democratic, and the concluding sentiment, 
"We Germans fear nothing else in the world" is 
not only arrogant and bombastic but is anti-Chris- 
tian, and is opposed to religion, universal loyalty 
and brotherhood; such a spirit is also militaristic, 
and is impregnated by intolerance, racial exclusive- 
ness and pernicious nationalism. 

Maxmilian Harden (Die Zukunft — July 29 th, 
1911) wrote, "Our forceful policy gets what it 
wants. . . . We might say that the hostile 
arrogance of the western powers releases us from 
all our treaty obligations . . . and forces the 
German Empire ... to revive the ancient 
Prussian policy of conquest. . . . We have 
entered upon a struggle in which the stake is the 
power and future of the German Empire." And 
again, "Germany has the right to extend the area 
of her domain according to her needs, and the 
power to obtain this right against all contradic- 
tions." 

The Prussian policy of conquest is that of 
Frederick II — the so-called Great, and Bismarck, 
the Chancellor of blood and iron. Frederick said 
when he grabbed Silesia to add to the power of 
Prussia, that he took what he wanted and what he 
had the power to take and hold, and would "leaA^e 
learned professors to come after and prove that it 
was just." And Frederick Wilhelm IV — the mad 
King — expressed the dominant Hohenzollern belief 
when he said, "All written constitutions are only 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 123 

scraps of paper." The Prussian dynasty has 
violated obhgations to its own people just as readily 
as treaties with foreign powers. Prussianism is 
brute power, and the German people will never 
have a real Constitution as long as the Hohen- 
zollerns and the Prussian Junkers can prevent it. 
All the rights that the people now "enjoy" are sub- 
ject to the whim of the dynasty, and all agreements 
are mere "scraps of paper." 

William Penn proved to the world that a treaty 
of peace, even though not formally expressed in a 
"scrap of paper" by the written word, ratified by 
an oath, and witnessed and guaranteed by the 
"Great Powers," could be kept with scrupulous 
fidelity by spiritually-minded white men and by 
so-called savages. Even the cynical Voltaire ex- 
pressed sincere admiration for the compact made 
between Penn and the American Indians, and 
affirmed that it was the only treaty that had never 
been broken. When Penn, the great apostle of 
peace and human justice, of democracy and Christ- 
likeness, died in England, a disappointed, ruined 
and heart-broken man, the people of the world who 
really appreciated his gi-eatness and virtue, were 
not his own people of the proud and aggressive 
Caucasian race, but the primitive "savages" of the 
Western World. The Indians of Pennsylvania 
revered Penn as the "White Truth Teller," and 
they sent presents across the seas, with their pro- 
found sympathy, to the widow of the great man, 
with the message that they would treasure in their 
hearts the memory of "the man of unbroken friend- 
ship and inviolate treaties." 

In The German War Book we read that when 
the expression "The Law of War" is used, it must 



124 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

be understood that the law is not fixed or binding, 
but is a mere "reciprocity of mutual agreement, and 
by it is meant only ... a limitation of 
arbitrary behavior wliich custom and convention- 
ality, human friendhness and a calculating egoism 
have erected, but for the observance of which there 
exists no express sanction but only the fear of re- 
prisals ;" "certain severities are indispensable to war 
— nay, more . . . the only true humanity very 
often lies in a ruthless application of them," and 
again, "International law is in no way opposed to 
the exploitation of the crimes of third parties (as- 
sassination, incendiarism, robbery and the like) to 
the prejudice of the enemy. . . . The ugly and 
immoral aspect of such methods cannot affect the 
recognition of their lawfulness. 

International law is not for the German who 
revels in ruthlessly violating its every provision, but 
listen to tlie German protest if any enemy resorts 
to reprisals and seeks by retaliation to punish them 
for their lawlessness! They vigorously object and 
howl their passionate denunciations of unscrupulous 
foes. After the Germans have been bombarding 
and bombing open towns for years, it is interesting 
to read that the Burgomaster of Frankfurt, after 
an aeroplane raid — which had for its objects muni- 
tion manufacturing establisliments and military 
transportation facilities — announces a despatch 
from the German Emperor expressing the sym- 
pathy of the "All-Highest" in the "misfortune that 
has befallen . . . Frankfurt as the result of 
an enemy attack which was contrary to interna- 
tional law and claimed many victims." When the 
allied raid on Frankfurt was taking place, German 
bombing squadrons were attacking Rouen, Havre, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 125 

Vernon, Dunkirk and Calais, but the Kaiser con- 
siders every German act of ruthless aggression "a 
military necessity," which, therefore, is fully justi- 
fied and is beyond all consideration of international 
or moral law. 

The impudence of the recent German protest 
against the use of shotguns by American soldiers, 
and their threat to put to death every American 
soldier captured with such a weapon, is patho- 
logically interesting. Could moral color-blindness 
be more complete? The nation which has gloried 
in its violation of all international law, which ruth- 
lessly ravished Belgium and considered a treaty of 
neutrality a mere unimportant "scrap of paper;" 
the nation which has introduced poison gas and 
poison gas shells and flame throwers as implements 
of warfare, and which has revived the use of liquid 
fire; the nation which has adopted a ruthless sub- 
marine warfare, sinking merchant and passenger 
ships of both belligerent and neutral nations and 
even destroying hospital ships at sight; which has 
bombarded and bombed open towns and murdered 
non-combatants; which has maliciously bombed 
Red Cross hospitals, schoolhouses and churches, 
looted private property, driven civilians into cap- 
tivity and subjected them to atrocities worse than 
death; which has poisoned wells, destroyed fruit 
trees and razed man's greatest works of art, and as 
the butcher of Belgium, Northern France and 
Poland, and the inventor of an unheard-of dia- 
bolical frightfulness, has reverted to all the for- 
bidden and unspeakable barbarities of the savage 
augmented in horror by modern science — this in- 
famous nation is stirred to indignation because 



126 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Americans on patrol duty have occasionally used 
shotguns instead of rifles. 

What a travesty to read that the Hun objects to 
methods of warfare "which cause unnecessary suf- 
fering!" This is surely a case for the alienist; and, 
in the opinion of real psychologists, only the shock 
of a severe military overthrow will prove an effec- 
tive remedy for the mental obsession of the Prus- 
sianized Germans. In some of the Rhine valley 
cities, resolutions have been passed protesting 
against aerial bombing attacks. Later on, when 
the Allies invade German soil, we shall hear Ger- 
man complaints about the destruction of private 
property. To cut down a German tree or shell a 
German cathedral or any non-military German 
building will be denounced as an infamous sacrilege ! 
And what words will the indignant German find to 
relieve his feelings if Allied soldiers ever do in Ger- 
many what German soldiers did in Louvain, or, 
indeed, wherever he cursed a foreign land with his 
savage, cruel, and lustful presence? 

German moral obtuseness goes hand in hand with 
an incredible lack of humor. And we shall see 
these curious characteristics develop to a remark- 
able degree, once the Allies cross the German 
frontier in force. In Deutschland bei Beginn des 
20 sten, Jahrhundrets, written in 1900, we read, 
"Whoever enters upon a war in future will do well 
to look only to his own interests and pay no heed to 
any so-called international law. He will do weU to 
act without consideration and without scruple." In 
Was und der Krieg bring en muss, a modern Ger- 
man writer has said, "Treaties under international 
law are no more than the formulated expression of 
the existent relations of power between states. If 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 127 

these relations of power have so far changed that 
the real or imaginary vital interests of one of the 
states demand and render possible the alteration 
of such treaties, it is the simple duty of the leader 
of that state to effect the alteration by all con- 
ceivable means, so long as the risk does not appear 
greater than the anticipated advantage. . . . 
For the will of the state no other principle exists 
but that of expediency (the subordination of moral 
principle to what seems to be advantageous) which 
is at the same time selfishness . . . far-seeing, 
shrewdly -calculating selfishness; . . . honesty 
. . . on vital questions, ought on no account to 
be carried to the pitch of inexpedient quixotism. 
. . . Woe to the people which do not stand as 
one man behind the statesman who, by dint of hard 
struggles with his own soul, has fought his way to 
the only true standpoint — viz., that in international 
relations magnanimity is wholly out of place, and 
that here the voice of expediency can alone be 
heard." 

Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner, of the Reichstag, has 
said, "There are no ethical friendships between the 
states in our day. There are only friendships of 
convenience, and friendships of convenience last 
just as long as the convenience itself. That is the 
sheet anchor of our foriegn policy." Tannenberg 
wrote (1911), "Today everything goes on peace- 
ably on the wretched earth, and it is those who have 
profited who are for peace. The little people and 
the remnants of a people have invented a new word 
— ^that is, international law. In reality, it is noth- 
ing else than their reckoning on our good-natured 
stupidity. . . . Room; they must make room. 
. . . It is they — or we! Since we are the 



128 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

stronger, the choice will not be difficult. We must 
quit our modest waiting at the door;" and the 
Leipziger Tagehlatt, of January 24th, 1913, said, 
"Our national development calls for recognition. 
. . . We are not an institute for the artificial 
preservation of dying nations." 

Klaus Wagner, in Krieg (1906), said, "War will 
unify the strong nation that is capable of a future 
and make it free, and will establish the people on a 
healthy, substantial basis. Those are the two 
chief purposes of war. A third can, however, be 
suggested, that a nation even when her national and 
fundamental interests do not coincide with those of 
another nation, still must rudely destroy this peo- 
ple's highest interests, must indeed remorselessly 
cut off from this foreign people the means of living 
for the future. It is a great, powerful nation which 
overturns a less courageous and frequently degen- 
erate people, and takes its territory from it. For 
a great, strong people finds its house too narrow, it 
cannot stir and move about, cannot work and build 
up, cannot thrive and grow. The great nation 
needs new territory. Therefore, it must spread out 
over foreign soil and must displace foreigners with 
the power of the sword." 

K. F. Wolff, the Pan-German writer in All- 
deutsche Blatter, August 30th, 1913, said, "The 
principal thing for the conqueror is the outspoken 
will to rule and the will to destroy the political and 
national life of the conquered." Wolff is one of 
the many German political writers who maintain 
that only the strongest should rule, and every physi- 
cally weak or small people should be enslaved. A 
warrior aristocracy should rule the earth and this 
should be created of German blood. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 129 

Dr. Adolf Lasson — born 1832 — (real name 
Lazarusson) has said, "The demand for peaceful 
rivalry of states ... is either an empty phrase 
in the mouth of simpletons or a deliberate and hypo- 
critical lie." "The state can realize itself only by 
the destruction of other states which logically can 
only be brought about by violence." And again, 
"Between states regarded as intelligent beings, dis- 
putes can be settled only by material force. War 
is therefore associated with the notion of a state. 
If you suppress war . . . you must set up 
universal despotism, universal slavery," i. e., to 
eliminate wars we must eliminate nations, but peo- 
ples are the makers of nations and peoples cannot 
be eliminated by despotic decree or compulsory 
absorption. Universal despotism in these en- 
lightened days would herald an era of popular 
revolutions. Lasson maintains that a state organ- 
ized for peace is no state at all. "A state is really 
manifest only in its preparation for war," and 
"War is the fundamental phenomena in the life of a 
state." Writing in 1868, Lasson expresses an in- 
teresting phase of German psychology in regard to 
"defensive" wars, which well illustrates how Ger- 
man minds have been warped to consider, as de- 
fensive, an action which strives to aggressively 
attain. "It is not alone that which it already has, 
that a state defends by war; it is even more that 
'which, as yet, it has 7iot, hut regards as a necessary 
gain from the war. It is absurd to inveigh against 
wars of conquest, the sole point of interest is the 
object of the conquest." 

To the Pan-German mind, the annexation of 
Belgium with its seacoast, the reahzation of Mittel- 
europa — a central European empire, absolutely 



130 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

dominated by Prusso-Germany — the Berlin to 
Bagdad development threatening Egypt and India, 
colonial expansion, an African empire and the 
annexation of French industrial land in the west, 
and of Russian agricultural land in the east, with 
German control of the Baltic, are not merely am- 
bitious and avaricious German schemes, but all 
these lands so lustfully coveted and to be wrested 
by brute power from their rightful possessors, are 
really German already, for Germans will it so. 
Pan-Germans regard such territorial aggrandize- 
ment "as a necessary gain from the war," and, 
according to Lasson, when Germany fights for 
them, she is waging a defensive wa?', for she fights to 
defend her anticijjated gains. This is the acme of 
stupidity but is in keeping with many other Prusso- 
German doctrines emanating from a dynastically- 
controlled, Teutonic scholarship and expressing 
itself in great mental activity void of intellectual 
integrity. Lasson also says, "Only the fear of an 
outside power can impose limits on the territorial 
expansion of the state. Any intervention (in the 
affairs of other states) that is not encouraged by 
favorable circumstances should not be attempted, 
hut if success is assured it is not merely justified, it 
becomes a positive duty of the state toward itself." 
Eduard von Hartmann (1842-1906) said that 
the belligerent states are always and exclusively in 
a "pure state of nature," in which there cannot 
possibly be any question of right or law. This is 
a typical German statement, expressive of a dis- 
torted belief in the grosser side of Darwin's theory 
of natural selection, or the survival of the fittest, 
while it ignores its real truth. Nature is a much 
abused word, and "a pure state of nature" is mean- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 131 

ingless to the enfettered and barricaded Teuton 
mind. Nature in reality is the expression of law 
and is law, and such law is immutable, unchanging 
and universal. German ruthless, intolerant na- 
tionalism is opposed to every law of nature, to the 
real law of humanity which in survival will actuate 
the lives of all men in harmony with the Cosmic 
ideal, and to the law of God — the controlling, 
sustaining and perfecting power of all life. Klaus 
Wagner in Krieg — ^1906 — wrote, "The old church- 
man preached of war as of a just judgment of God ; 
the modern natural philosopher sees in war the 
favorable means of selection (survival of the 
fittest). They speak with different tongues but 
they mean the same thing," viz., that "God" as 
Napoleon said, "is on the side of the heaviest bat- 
talions," that "might is right," and physical force, 
not mind and soul, expresses God's will and 
dominates all the world. Dr. Karl Mehrmann in 
Das grossere Deutschland (1917) says, "The more 
the voices of our people join in the chorus of 
national interests, the more pleasing will the song 
be to God. Through might to kultur, and through 
kultur to might. The beginning and the end is 
might." How different is the doctrine of Pan- 
Germanism from the teachings of the Christ whom 
the Teuton people falsely profess to serve. 



VI. 



German Antagonism to Arbitration 

IN 1891, Lord Salisbury, the British Prime Min- 
ister, had a statement compiled showing to the 
people of Em^ope the cost of military prepara- 
tion, and he forwarded this report to the German 
Emperor ; but the European war lord refused to be 
interested in any plan to restrict armaments and 
reduce the extent and expense of armies and navies. 
In 1896, Lord Sahsbury, through the instru- 
mentality of Count Lambsdorf, placed all the data 
which he had accumulated on this subject before 
the Czar of Russia, with the result that on August 
28th, 1898, there appeared the celebrated Peace 
Manifesto of the Czar, and in spite of the hostility 
of the Teuton nations to the plan, a Peace Confer- 
ence assembled at the Hague on May 18th, 1899, 
with the representatives of twenty-six states. 
Throughout the entire proceedings of the Confer- 
ence, Britain led in a sincere effort to find some 
just, practical and generally satisfactory basis on 
which all nations could agree to diminish the in- 
tolerable burden of armaments, and pledge them- 
selves to settle the differences arising between civi- 
lized nations on some equitable and legal basis. In 
these efforts, Britain was supported by America, 
France, Russia, and, naturally, the smaller states, 
but the opposition of Germany and her ally, Aus- 
tria-Hungary, was so pronounced that it was with 
extreme difficulty and much forbearance and repres- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 133 

sion of feelings on the part of the cultured repre- 
sentatives of peaee-lov^ing and humane nations, that 
the Conference was kept in session even a reason- 
able period of time. 

In the autobiography of Andrew D. White, who 
represented the United States at the Hague, we 
read that Count Miinster, Chairman of the Ger- 
man Delegation, "insisted that arbitration would be 
injurious to Germany; that Germany is prepared 
for war as no other country is or can be; that she 
can mobilize her army in ten days, and that neither 
France, Russia nor any other power can do this. 
Arbitration he (JNIiinster) said, would simply give 
rival powers time to put themselves in readiness and 
would, therefore, be a great disadvantage to Ger- 
many." In the discussion. Prof. Zorn of the Ger- 
man delegation voiced the prevailing Pan-German 
and dynastic sentiment, that the subjection of 
Germany to an International Court of Arbitration 
was not "in conformity with the traditions of the 
Bismarckian policy" of blood and iron. By way of 
introduction to the discussion on armaments and 
arbitration at the Hague, the German Emperor 
delivered an address in Weisbaden, in which he 
declared that the best pledge of peace was the 
"sharp, gleaming sword." It has been well said 
that "it is a part of the German system to furnish 
on every occasion an introduction to the concert of 
the European piper of peace by blowing a war- 
fanfare on the Prussian bugle." 

The British Ministers continued their efforts to 
come to some peaceful understanding with Ger- 
many in regard to reduction of armaments. Sir 
Edward Grey urged that any attempt to maintain 
peace by armaments was ruinously expensive for 



134 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

all nations. Campbell-Bannerman, on March 5th, 
1907, said in the British House of Commons, "We 
have desired and still desire to place ourselves in 
the very front rank of those who think that the war- 
like attitude of powers as displayed by the excessive 
growth of armaments is a curse to Europe and that 
the sooner it is checked . . . the better." 

The Second Hague Peace Conference, held in 
1907, followed generally along the lines of the First. 
Britain desired a discussion on the question of arma- 
ments, but Germany declined to enter it. The same 
nations that in 1899 worked for compulsory, or any 
other form of international arbitration with the 
ultimate object of ending warfare, again sought to 
reason with the representatives of the Teuton na- 
tions; but in its militaristic creed Prussianism is 
inexorable, and once more the Hohenzollern heu- 
tenants ridiculed every pacifistic attempt on the part 
of other nations. On March 13th, 1911, Earl Grey, 
in the British House of Commons, emphasized the 
Government's desire to arrive at some understand- 
ing with Germany in regard to the restriction of 
armaments. He stated that if the tremendous 
expenditure and rivalry of armaments continued, 
they must in the long run break civilization down. 
The burden of armaments, he affirmed, if it steadily 
persisted and intensified in the future as in the past, 
was even a greater danger than war itself, since it 
involved "a bleeding to death in time of peace." On 
March 30th, the Imperial Chancellor in a debate in 
the German Reichstag, after thirteen years of 
evasion, declared plainly and definitely that "the 
question of an agreement as to armaments is in- 
soluble as long as men are men and states are 
states." 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 135 

Still Britain struggled to come to some under- 
standing with Germany and, in February, 1912, 
Lord Haldane was sent to Berlin to discuss the 
question of armaments, but as he commenced his 
journey, the German Emperor, in opening the 
Reichstag, announced that great increases were 
necessary in both the Army and the Navy. As a 
result of Haldane's conference with the German 
Emperor and the Imperial Chancellor, it later de- 
veloped that whereas Germany would agree to noth- 
ing definite, and would put nothing in wi'iting, yet 
they might be wilHng to retard their warship build- 
ing if Britain did the same, provided Britain would 
definitely obligate herself to a policy of uncon- 
ditional neutrality i7i the event of any European 
conflict in which Gerinany was involved. This 
tricky, Hohenzollern request was an eff rontry to the 
British Empire that could not have come from any 
other source ; it was an insulting demand that Britain 
renounce her position as a great Power and sacrifice 
her honor for nothing. Britain, of course, declined 
the German proposal but did not cease her efforts 
for peace, international good feeling and reduction 
of armaments. Nothwithstanding Germany's arro- 
gant attitude, the British Cabinet prepared the fol- 
lowing statement which was transmitted to Berlin 
through Count Metternich, the German Ambas- 
sador: "The two Powers being naturally desirous 
of securing peace and friendship between them. 
Britain declares that she will neither make nor join 
in any unprovoked attack upon Germany. Aggres- 
sion upon Germany is not the subject and forms no 
part of any treaty understanding or combination to 
which Britain is now a party, nor will she become a 
party to anything that has such an object." This is 



136 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

a promise of non-aggression in the widest sense of 
the word, but even with this assurance that Britain 
would not attack, Germany asked for security to be 
able to attack her or any other nation, undisturbed. 
Germany sought to isolate Britain and make her 
own path secure to hegemony on the Continent 
which would ultimately lead to Britain's further 
humiliation and Germany's world-leadership. 

In October, 1901, Germany suggested a form 
of alliance with Britain whereby each should 
guarantee the possessions of the other in all parts 
of the world except Asia; this meant that Britain 
should definitely guarantee for all time the German 
occupation of Alsace-Lorraine, Poland, etc. The 
alliance was primarily intended by Germany to 
cause a break in the good feelings existing between 
Britain and France; it was part of Germany's 
malicious plan to isolate France and then pounce 
upon her. Although Britain greatly desired an 
alliance of peace, she could not subscribe to the Ger- 
man plan and sacrifice her honor and her loyal 
Gallic friend. A Frenchman has wisely remarked, 
"Wilhelm II always offers to be your friend 
against somebody else. Otherwise your friendship 
has no value for him." This is a typical Prussian 
characteristic; it was conspicuous in the diplomacy 
of Frederick the Great, and was a prominent 
feature of Bismarck's foreign policy. Sir Edward 
Grey in November, 1911, well expressed the honor- 
able British Peace Policy when he said, "One does 
not make new friendships worth having by desert- 
ing old ones. New friendships, by all means, let us 
make, but not at the expense of the ones we have," 
and again, "It is difficult to find a half-way house 
between constant liability to friction and cordial 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 137 

friendship. It is cordial friendship alone which pro- 
vides sufficient mutual tolerance and goodwill to 
prevent difficulties and friction which would other- 
wise arise." 

The history of the Hague Peace Conferences and 
of Britain's attempts to form a real alliance of peace 
and reach an understanding with Germany in re- 
gard to armaments, places with absolute certainty 
the full blame for the present world-war where it 
belongs, and also suggests that, for many years 
back, Germany had planned and prepared herself 
for the conflict with France and Russia from which 
she expected to emerge triumphant, only later to 
subjugate Britain, and at some future time prob- 
ably to fight with the Mongolians in the Far East, 
and the United States in the West, for absolute 
world-domination. 

The Hague Peace Conferences definitely prove 
that a dynastically-controlled and Prussianized 
Germany will have nothing to do with any demo- 
cratic and, therefore, essentially pacifistic inter- 
national program, which includes compulsory 
arbitration and restriction of armaments, not to 
mention a federation of states, a permanent inter- 
national tribunal and armed forces contributed by 
the various states to form an international army 
which would operate under the direction of the tri- 
bunal, to enforce, if necessary, its decrees. Arbitra- 
tion is for democratic peoples, enjoying constitu- 
tional government; militarism is for dynasties, 
absolute monarchies, despots and tyrants, and these 
are never interested in any form of justice or peace. 

Alfred H. Fried, in Handbuch der Friedens- 
bewegung (1911), tells us that "The reception of 
the Tsars (peace) Manifesto was anything but 



138 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

friendly. . . . The learned world (he should 
have limited his comment to the Teuton nations) 
also was for the most part hostile to the idea under- 
lying the Manifesto, and such a man as Mommsen 
could even, amid great applause, characterize the 
proposed Conference as 'a misprint in world- 
history.' " Prof. Hasse, in 1908, wrote, "The worst 
of hypocrisies is the participation by Germany in 
the Hague Conference. . . . We should do 
better to leave that farce to those who, for centuries, 
have made of hypocrisy an industry and a habit." 
This is the comment of a German, the diplomatic 
records of whose nation are saturated with devilish 
insincerity, unscrupulousness and Machiavellian 
deceit; indeed the downright treachery of the 
Hohenzollern dealings with other peoples can only 
be rivaled in purpose, not in extent, with those of 
the Austrian Hapsburgs. Otfried Nippold in 
German Chauvinism (1913) tells us that at a meet- 
ing of the German Defense League held at Cassel 
in February, 1913, General Keim said, "People are 
too much given to sentimental maunderings. To 
what practical end had the vaunted Hague Peace 
Meetings led? The one hundred thousand marks 
spent on the Peace Palace would much better have 
been devoted to the support of needy veterans." 
The latter remark is a mere empty catch-phrase of 
a politician; what he probably really felt was that 
the money would have been better spent in guns, 
equipment, or in the maintenance of fighting 
troops. 

The German attitude and ambition to dominate 
the policy of Europe by the superiority of her arma- 
ments and will to power were very clearlj^ and 
decisively expressed by Chancellor von Bethmann- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 139 

Hollweg in March, 1911, when, in rejecting Presi- 
dent Taft's proposal for arbitration, he said: 
"When a people will not or cannot continue to 
spend enough on its armaments to be able to make 
its way in the world, then it falls back into the 
second rank and sinks down to the role of a 'super' 
on the world's stage. There will always be another 
and a stronger there, who is ready to take the place 
in the world which it has vacated." 

It is useless to expect any government to favor- 
ably, or even seriously consider international arbi- 
tration and reduction of armaments if peace to them 
is not a worthy ideal toward which to strive. The 
Hohenzollern and Hapsburg dynasties do not 
desire peace, and their regimental professors in their 
enslaved universities have been commanded to teach 
the people that war is health, progress, dominion, 
and prosperity. "Only over the black gate of the 
cemetery," says Klaus Wagner in Krieg (1906), 
"can we read the words 'Eternal peace for all 
peoples.' For peoples who live and strive, the only 
maxim and motto must be 'eternal war.' " There is 
no doctrine here of "The last war," or of waging 
war to attain a just and lasting peace; Germany's is 
rather the creed of the jungle and of primitive man. 

The Crown Prince of Germany in Deutsclilandin 
Waff en (1903) said, "The German who loves his 
people and believes in the greatness and future of 
our country . . . must not let himself be lazily 
sung to sleep by the peace-lullabies of the Uto- 
pians;" and again, "Our country is obliged, more 
than any other country, to place all its confidence in 
its good weapons. Set in the center of Europe, it 
is badljT^ protected by its unfavorable geographical 
frontiers, and is regarded by many nations without 



140 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

affection. Upon the German Empire, therefore, is 
imposed more emphatically than upon any other 
peoples of the earth, the sacred duty of watching 
carefully that its army and its navy be always pre- 
pared to meet any attack from the outside. It is 
only by reliance upon our brave sword that we shall 
be able to maintain that place in the sun which 
belongs to us, and which the world does not seem 
very willing to accord us." This statement is a 
classic of Machiavellian-militaristic Pan-German- 
ism; it is the raving of a dynastic mind, but is ac- 
cepted as logic by subsidized intellectuals and is fed 
to an authoritatively educated people by the en- 
slaved teachers, ministers and writers of a state, 
wearing upon their minds and souls the insignia of 
the Hohenzollerns. 

Kronprinz Wilhelm says that Germany (i. e., the 
dynasty) places all its confidence not in the people, 
their soul culture, humanity, sense of right, loyalty 
and justice, but in the army and the weapons of 
war. He prates of being surrounded by enemies 
when, in reality, all of these supposititious enemies 
are praying for peace, goodwill and harmony, and 
have been urging international arbitration and the 
removal of all excuses for war. He talks of being 
prepared "to meet any attack from the outside," 
when in reality no such danger threatens, and even 
if it did, could positively be prevented for all time 
by Hohenzollern willingness to place their quarrels 
before an International Court of Jiistice. The 
preparation "to meet any attack" to which he refers 
is really preparation not to properly defend but to 
aggressively attack. Prince Wilhelm has pas- 
sionately denounced the ideal of "everlasting peace" 
as a malicious and essentially evil thing. The 
Hohenzollerns, the Prussian Junkers and the Pan- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 141 

German Imperialists preach not peace but war, and 
strive to substitute Chauvinism and Jingoism for 
patriotism, in the fettered minds of a guUible peo- 
ple. "A peaceful view of life," said the Crown 
Prince, "is un-German and does not suit us," and 
yet he prates today of Germany fighting a defen- 
sive and preventive war, when he himself was one 
of the prime movers in a deliberately-planned war 
of conquest. The present war is purely a dynastic 
war, born of dynastic and imperialistic ideas and 
serving dynastic and imperialistic ends. The evi- 
dence is unmistakably conclusive; it could be noth- 
ing else. 

The "place in the sun" that, according to Kron- 
prinz Wilhelm, foreign powers do "not seem very 
willing to accord us," is not territory of the German 
Empire but parts of Russia, France, Belgium, etc. In 
true Lasson fashion, Kronprinz Wilhelm considers 
as really German all that territory, people and 
power which he lustfully covets, and the military 
power of Teutonia must be prepared to meet all 
attacks of foes, who struggle to defend their own, 
from unscrupulous Prussian hordes who always 
wage their aggressive wars in defense. 

HohenzoUern arguments invariably represent the 
acme of stupidity, but they form a catechism for the 
mentally enslaved people of a great empire. Ger- 
many does not want arbitration, for arbitration 
means peace, and peace is diametrical^ opposed to 
the Pan-German doctrine of "world conquest or 
downfall." Germany desired to live at peace with 
all peoples while she was preparing for war, and 
then only waited for an opportunity to s^ke for 
gain that gave promise of success. Germany may 
not want (just now) what she knows she cannot 
forcibly acquire, but she does want and will take all 



142 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

that she has the brute power to take, and this with- 
out any regard to right or justice. 

Bernhardi in Gerinany and the Neoct War 
(1912) said, "Arbitration treaties must be 
pecuharly detrimental to an aspiring people which 
has not yet reached its political and national zenith, 
and is bent on expanding its power in order to 
play its part honorably in the civilized world. 
Every arbitration court must originate in a certain 
political status; it must regard this as legally con- 
stituted, and must treat any alterations, however 
necessary, to which the whole of the contracting 
parties do not agree, as an encroachment. In this 
way every progressive change is arrested and a 
legal position created, which may easily conflict 
with the actual turn of affairs, and may check the 
expansion of the young and vigorous state in favor 
of one which is sinking in the scale of civilization. 
. . . We must strenuously combat the peace 
propaganda. War must regain its moral justifica- 
tion and its political significance in the eyes of the 
public. . . . War ... is not a barbaric 
act, but the highest expression of true civilization; 
war is a political necessity." Bernhardi deplores 
the fact that "aspirations for peace . . . seem 
to dominate our age and threaten to poison the soul 
of the German people. . . . War is . . . 
an indispensable factor of kultur in which a truly 
civilized nation (Germany) finds the highest ex- 
pression of strength and vitality;" "Our own 
country, by employing its military powers, has at- 
tained a degree of kultur which it never could have 
reached by the methods of peaceful development;" 
"The duties and obligations of the German people 
. . . cannot be fulfilled without drawing the 
sword." 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 143 

General Alfred Wrochem (born 1857) said, 
"A developing, onward-striving people like our- 
selves requires new land for its energies, and if 
peace will not secui'e it, then only war remains," 
and again, "Sentimental maunderings about hu- 
manity and peace were even bringing us face to 
face with the danger that cosmopolitanism might 
overthrow Germanism, and that our Kaiser and 
war lord might be insulted bj^ being offered the 
Nobel Peace Prize." Prof Friedrich Meinecke 
(born 1862), in The German Uprimig of 1014, 
says "We want to become a world people. Let us 
remind ourselves that the belief in our mission as 
a world-people has arisen from our originally pure 
spiritual impulse to absorb the world unto our- 
selves." 

Bernhardi speaks of the "mental and moral 
force" of war which gives victory to a nation 
"possessed of a strong vitality and of a progressive 
civilization." A strong vitality here means mere 
brute power, and a progressive civilization mere 
scientific knowledge which increases the scope and 
power for evil when the brute force is actuated by 
the false and inhuman German doctrine of im- 
moralism. "If it were not for war," says Bern- 
hardi, "we should probably find that inferior and 
degenerated races would overcome healthy and 
youthful ones." Who is to judge in regard to the 
inferiority and degeneracy of peoples? Why, Ger- 
many, of course! And who renders the verdict in 
Germany and creates or determines the national 
belief? Hohenzollernism with its Junkers and the 
great army of subsidized, enslaved lieutenants, who 
spread the mental poison of the Prussian dynasty 
through the medium of schools, church, press and 
lecture platforms. 



VII. 

Germany Willed the Wae 

(First Part) 

GENERAL FRIEDRICH BERNHARDI 
wrote, in 1912, that it is "quite unthinkable 
that an agreement between France and Ger- 
many can be negotiated before the question between 
them has been once more decided by arms. . . . 
In one way or another we must square our account 
with France if we wish for a free hand in our inter- 
national policy. . . . France must be so com- 
pletely crushed that she can never again come 
across our path." The idea of a conquering mili- 
tant nation desiring to "square our account" with 
a neighbor-nation which they humiliated and 
ignominiously defeated at the last issue at arms, 
is ludicrous. France, from whom Alsace-Lorraine 
was forcibly taken, might be justified in a desire 
to "square our account," but what humiliation and 
reverse are there for Germany to settle that were 
not fully covered in the war of 1870-71 ? Germany 
was well aware of her own numerical military 
superiority, for whereas the population of France 
had increased only eight per cent, in three decades, 
that of Germany had increased sixty per cent., and 
in 1910 Germany numbered 65,000,000 people and 
France only 39,000,000. It was not to "square our 
account" that Germany resolved to wage war on 
France; it was the effect of a depraved national 
jealousy and unrestrained lust. Gennany was 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 145 

envious of France, of her culture, her thrift, her 
industry and her prosperity, so "France must be 
. . . completely crushed." 

Bernhardi expressed the Hohenzollern and Pan- 
German belief in regard to Britain when he said, 
"A pacific agreement with Britain is a will-o'-the- 
wisp which no serious German statesman would 
trouble to follow. We must always keep the 
possibility of war with England before our eyes, 
and arrange our political and military plans accord- 
ingly." 

Bernhardi regretted that Germany did not 
plunge Europe into war on the occasion of the 
]\Ioroccan incident. A year after the Anglo-French 
treaty of 1904, in which Britain recognized the 
special interests of France in ^Morocco, the German 
Emperor visited the Sultan of Morocco at Tangier 
and fostered discontent. At a conference of the 
Great Powers, held at Algeciras, in Spain (1906), 
an apparently equitable and pacific agreement was 
reached, and Germany did not openly insist on 
equality of footing with France. Between July 30th 
and August 5th, 1907, however, several Europeans 
were killed in an outbreak at Casablanca, in Morocco, 
and the French bombarded the to^vn and landed 
troops. The brother of the Sultan claimed the 
throne, and the country went through the throes of 
civil war; Germany then became aggressive in her 
demands on France, and finally forced her to cede 
to Germany a portion of the French Congo in 
return for France's retaining a free hand in 
Morocco. 

The iMoroccan revolution was undoubtedly en- 
coiu-aged, if not instigated, by the German 
Emperor, and when the dispute between France 



146 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

and Germany, in which Britain supported France, 
was peacefully settled, the Prussian-German 
Jingoes loudly proclaimed their disappointment. 
The Pan-Germanists did not want part of the 
French Congo; they wanted war, and when war 
was declared thej^ intended to strip France of her 
colonies. Bernhardi deplored "the weakening of 
public confidence which is undoubtedly shown both 
in the press and the Reichstag," and "the deep rift 
which has been formed . . . between the gov- 
ernment and the mass of the nationalistic party" 
because of the pacific endings of an international 
quarrel. Bernhardi consoles himself, however, with 
the thought that the agreement of 1911 is not per- 
manent, and that all chances for discord are not 
past. "We need not, therefore, regard this Con- 
vention as definite. It is as liable to revision as the 
Algeciras treaty, and, indeed, offers in this respect 
the advantage that it creates new opportunities for 
friction with France." 

A treaty, therefore, which has prevented a Euro- 
pean or world war meets with the conditional ap- 
proval of a dynastically-governed, militaristic peo- 
ple because it offers new sources of friction. This 
is a typical and much-sought-f or "dynastic peace ;" 
it is a peace that can be made to lead to discord 
when the dynasty so decrees. Bernhardi brazenly 
suggests that Germany might use "British attempts 
at a rapprochement ... to delay the neces- 
sary, inevitable war until we may fairly imagine 
we have some prospect of success." But Bernhardi 
cautions Germanj^ against waiting too long before 
she strikes. "There can only be a short respite 
before we once more face the question whether we 
will draw the sword for our position in the world, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 147 

or renounce such position at once and for all. Wait, 
we dare not. . . . The situation in the world 
affords us numerous points to which we can apply 
our lever." 

As a specific illustration of Bernhardi's mili- 
taristic and Machiavellian policy of Immoralism 
in state affairs, it is interesting to note that he 
accuses the Government and statesmen of Britain 
of gross incompetency and national stupidity for 
not intervening in our Civil War in favor of the 
South. Bernhardi deplores Germany's apparently 
conciliatory spirit in the Moroccan crisis, and under 
the immediate pressure of the unwelcome Franco- 
German agreement, wrote: "It was a most serious 
mistake in German policy that a final settling of 
accounts with France was not effected at a time 
when the state of international affairs was favor- 
able, and success might confidently have been ex- 
pected. . . . This policy somewhat resembles 
the supineness for which Britain has herself to 
blame, when she refused her assistance to the 
Southern states in the American Civil War," and, 
again, "Since Britain committed the unpardonable 
blunder, from her nationalistic point of view, of not 
supporting the Southern states in the American 
war of secession, a rival to Britain's world-wide 
Empire has appeared on the Western side of the 
Atlantic." 

Prof. Delbriick, in 1913, wrote, "Not only must 
our armaments be sufficient, but we must also, above 
all, choose the right moment. . . . This policy 
can be the more readily carried into effect if, as in 
our case, the highest authority lies in the hands of 
those who look far ahead and do not take the whole 
world into their confidence." 



148 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Since the days of Bismarck, the Hohenzollern 
dynasty has sought to engender among the German 
people a most unreasonable and unwarranted hatred 
of Britain, while, at times, the Emperor posed as 
Britain's friend. Treitschke, in the days of Em- 
peror Frederick III (father of the present 
Kaiser) , concluded a long political address with the 
following passionate words which provoked ap- 
plause, "It must come to this, that no German dog 
shall forevermore accept a piece of bread from the 
hand of an Englishman." Treitschke, in Politics 
(1899), naively says that the obstacles to English 
kultur have been the climate and lack of wine and 
beautiful scenery. These absurdities emanate from 
the official panegyrist and "philosopher" of the 
Prussian dynasty. Karl Schmidt (1914) says, 
"England has nothing but the instincts of a beast 
of prey." Oskar Schmitz (1915) wrote, "Om* real 
fight is against England, the master of calculation." 
Prof. Ernst Haeckel (Professor of Zoology at 
Jena), the German apostle of Darwinism and 
champion of Monism, accuses Britain (1915) of 
"Barbarous and infamous conduct," and of "shame- 
less political falsity and hypocrisy." Haeckel ap- 
parently has never read the British Official Blue 
Book, the French Yellow Book, the Belgian Grey 
Book, the Russian Orange Book, in conjunction 
with the Austrian Red Book, and the German 
White Book, or, if he has seen them, it is evident 
that they have been German-printed, expurgated 
editions, falsified in the usual "Ems dispatch" man- 
ner by order of the House of Hohenzollern. If 
there are any people more gullible than the Ger- 
man masses, they are the Intellectuals, who so crave 
d3mastic recognition with its clap-trap of "honors," 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 149 

tinsel and prestige, that they numb their reasoning, 
rational minds, accept as absolute truth any false- 
hood thrown out to them by the ruling powers, and 
prepare elaborate "philosophical" defenses of the 
most monstrous crimes and ridiculous, mental obses- 
sions of Hohenzollernism and Pan-Germanism. 

Haeckel, in his ignorance and blinded, fanatical 
prejudice, says that "the blood-guiltiness of this 
'greatest crime in world-history' lies at the door of 
Britain alone, and she has for more than forty years 
been plotting the annihilation of her dangerous 
German competitor;" and again, "The unexampled 
sorrow and need begotten by the gigantic world- 
war" was caused "by Britain's brutal egoism." He 
also accuses Britain of worshipping not the Chris- 
tian's God, but the Golden Calf — the Bank of Eng- 
land. Germanicus, in Britain and the War (1914) , 
has the audacity to say, "It is a pity that Nietzsche 
did not live to see the success of his teaching in 
England. . . . Britain may claim to have bred 
'the superman' in the highest potency yet attained. 
He is coldly and unfeelingly inspired by a frightful 
craving for power that wades through rivers of 
blood and knows neither compunction nor pity." 
Here is the acme of deliberate, vicious perverse- 
ness ; but it is only one potent example in thousands 
of what dynastic propaganda is capable of in the 
crucifixion of truth. 

Pastor Losche (1914) calls the British, "poison- 
mixers" and "master-assassins.' Pastor Tolzein, 
in My German Fatherland, saj^s she is "a Moloch 
that will devour everything ; a vampire that will suck 
tribute from all the veins of the earth; a monster 
snake encircling the whole equator." Pastor 
Lahusen, of Berlin, in The Fifth Petition in the 



150 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Lord's Prayer and England, says, "We must be 
wroth, and we will be wroth, with the whole power 
of our inner man. We will hate the will of the 
nation which has so basely set upon our peace- 
loving people in order to destroy us. We will hate 
the Satanic power of arrogance and selfishness, of 
treachery and cruelty, of lying and hypocrisy. We 
will fight without scruple, and employ all means of 
destruction however terrible they may be." Pastor 
Vorwerk, a well-known author of books on religion 
and child-psychology, said, "Covetousness, a huck- 
stering spirit, a thirst for gain, calculating envy, 
hypocrisy — what despicable vices have they not be- 
come to us. We spit at them, we hate them, just 
because they are British." This German Minister 
of the Gospel and "spiritual overseer" of a people 
does not hate certain enumerated, despicable quali- 
ties because they are evil, but merely because they 
are British. As a matter of fact, these despicable 
qualities used by Vorwerk and his clerical colleagues 
to describe the British, are peculiarly applicable to 
German thought and action. It is evident that in 
Germany, patriotism, or rather nationalism, tri- 
umphs over religion. Vorwerk expresses as only a 
Hohenzollern Intellectual can, a nationalistic ego- 
ism and self-righteousness, and his poor imprisoned 
mind naturally fails to perceive that for covetous- 
ness, calculating envy and hypocrisy no govern- 
ment on earth has the damnable black record of 
Prussia under Frederick the Great and Bismarck, 
and Germany under the modern Nero — Wilhelm 
II. 

Prof. Sombart says "the English are little more 
than a heap of living corpses. The whole body of 
the people rots ;" Pastor Rump, in War Devotions 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 151 

(1914), says, "Take heed that ye be counted among 
the blessed, who show decHning Britain, corrupt 
Belgium, licentious France and uncouth Russia, the 
unconquerable, youthful power and manhood of the 
German people in a manner never to be forgotten. 
. . . Brethren, make an end of this generation 
of vipers with German blows and German thrusts." 
Pastor Rump also declares that Britain is "the 
world's greatest sham of a people . . . the 
Judas among nations," and he brands France as a 
"sensual harlot . . . shameless . . . im- 
pudent and cowardly." Why all these insensate 
and frenzied ravings against Britain? Because 
Britain declined to pledge herself to unconditional 
neutrality in case Germany invaded Belgium and 
violated a treaty which she (Germany) together 
with Austria, France, Russia and Britain had 
pledged themselves to maintain and support; be- 
cause Britain would not be a traitor to her knightly 
word, and because Britain refused to stand idly by 
and see innocent Belgium ravaged, while Germany 
let loose her armed hordes to subjugate peace- 
loving neighbor-nations. 

The record of Britain's efforts to prevent the 
great world-war is unmistakably clear and abso- 
lutely convincing; the earnestness and sincerity of 
her practical struggle to avert war in 1914 com- 
mand not only respect, but admiration. Sir 
Edward Grey did everything within human power 
to find an avenue of escape for civilized nations 
from blood-thirsty Germany. The indefatigable 
zeal, skill and energy of the British were ably and 
whole-heartedly supported by the French and Rus- 
sian governments, but all to no avail. Everything 
presented was frowned upon, objected to, dechned. 



152 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

or ignored by the German and Austrian govern- 
ments, working together under the domination of 
the Prussian dynasty. Germany declared war 
against Russia on August 1st, 1914, while Russia 
was earnestly striving through every conceivable 
diplomatic channel to maintain the peace of 
Europe, and immediately after her Minister had 
declared "In no case would Russia begin hostilities 
first." It is significant that Austria, supposed to be 
the Great Power in the controversy with Russia, 
did not declare war until August 6th. It has been 
well said that the two chief duelists had not yet 
crossed swords, when the second of one party at- 
tacked the other. This blood-thirsty second seemed 
to fear that his principal might yield to strong 
national, pacific sentiment, so Germany — the 
second — started a war when Austria seemed to 
proceed too slowly in attacking her opponent, who 
appeared as the champion of a smaller sister-nation 
of the same race and blood. 

At a Council held in Potsdam, July 29th, 1914, 
under the Presidency of Emperor Wilhelm II, 
war had been definitely determined upon. After 
July 29th Germany was positively committed to 
war, the military powers were in command and 
mobilization commenced on July 30th. War was 
declared against France, and on the morning of 
August 4th German troops invaded Belgian terri- 
tory, after she had refused to violate the treaty of 
London of 1839, by permitting troops of a foreign 
nation free passage through her land. Belgium ap- 
pealed to Britain, as a signatory of the treaty 
guarantee, to protect her neutrality, and Britain, in 
response, promptly requested Germany to with- 
draw her troops; when this request was ignored. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 153 

Britain then declared that she must take those steps 
to protect Belgium which were definitely imposed 
upon her by her treaty obligations. 

On August 4th, Germany was at war with 
France, Russia and Belgium, and it was hoped by 
the HohenzoUerns that Britain would decide to re- 
main neutral. They felt sure that "commercial 
Britain" — the nation actuated by the "shopkeeper 
spirit" — would not undertake a great, expensive 
war for any idealistic purpose, and they expected 
that "perfidious Albion" would sacrifice her friends 
in order to enjoy the benefits of peace. Chancellor 
von Bethmann-Hollweg, in the Reichstag, on 
August 4th, positively admitted and acknowledged 
in no uncertain manner, Britain's earnest efforts to 
maintain the peace of Europe, and adjust all mat- 
ters of dispute and misunderstanding bj'^ confer- 
ence or by arbitration; and all that he or the Ger- 
man government has since said in regard to 
Britain's responsibility for the war, is absolutely 
contradicted by the Imperial Chancellor's own 
statement of August 4th, uttered a few hours 
before Britain shocked the self-complacency of 
Germany by declaring war, because of that nation's 
criminal violation of the Belgian treaty. 

Britain had fought nobly to prevent war. She 
had urged the French and Russians to work for 
peace and not count on her help in case of war ; she 
had urged Germany and Austria to work for peace 
and not bank on her neutrality in case of hostilities. 
During the latter part of July and the first few 
days of August, 1914, German statesmen, working 
under dynastic orders, did absolutely nothing what- 
soever in the interest of peace, but did all that could 
possibly be done in the subtle realm of diplomacy. 



154 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

to make war inevitable. The German author of 
J' Accuse! has well said, "While others hastened to 
the spot with fire engines and water buckets to 
extinguish the beginnings of the conflagration, 
German statesmen poured oil on the flames and 
collected brushwood so that the smoldering spark 
might develop into a holocaust. And now that the 
fires of hell have broken loose, the Imperial Chan- 
cellor sees, horror-struck, the consequence of his 
fearful deed ; he writes and talks in order to charge 
others with his misdeed, like the bm-glar who runs 
down the street shouting 'Stop, thief!' " 

While Britain, France and Russia were working 
for peace, Germany had decided on war, and was 
scheming only and how best to force the issue, keep 
Britain neutral, bring Italy into the conflict, and 
get the support of the German people. To accom- 
plish this latter object, the war had to be a defensive 
war. The German Emperor has the power to de- 
clare war, if it is "defensive;" if offensive the con- 
sent of the Federal Council or the Bundesrat — the 
upper house of INIonarchial appointees — must be 
obtained. Since the present war of conquest and 
unprecedented, ruthless aggression is considered by 
the Hohenzollern djmasty and the German Govern- 
ment a defensive war, it is evident that in practice 
the Kaiser can personally declare war at will. 
Much of the talk of the Emperor, the Imperial 
Chancellor and the various Ministers and German 
Governmental officials about the present "defen- 
sive" war had three objects in view, (1) to arouse 
the feelings of an outraged nation to defend their 
homes and fatherland; (2)* to make the German 
declaration of war dictated by the Kaiser, constitu- 
tional; (3) to obtain the cooperation of Italy, which 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 155 

could not be claimed under the terms of the Triple 
Alliance, unless one of the nations was attacked. 
Germany, moreover, hoped to keep Britain neutral 
in the conflict, for she well knew that if Britain be- 
lieved that either France or Russia had commenced 
the war, she would decline to be brought into the 
struggle. 

It is an interesting fact that aggi'cssive military 
enterprises and Machiavellian unscrupulousness are 
so inseparable, that no war in modern times has 
been begun without the aggressor assuming an 
injured air, pretending that his nation wished noth- 
ing but peace and sanctimoniously invoking divine 
aid for its devilish and deliberately-planned mur- 
derous policy. James M. Beck has truly said that 
"Professions of peace" on the part of aggi-essive 
belligerents "belong to the cant of diplomacy, and 
have always characterized the most bellicose of 
nations." 

The German Government succeeded in deceiving 
the gullible German people, but they could not 
deceive Italy, who repudiated the war as a malicious 
and aggressive one on the part of her Allies, and 
in which her treaty obligations did not require — or 
her national honor permit — her participation. The 
German people were deceived by such phrases as 
"The state of defense which is forced upon us;" 
"The struggle for our freedom and kultur against 
aggression and oppression;" "The French and 
Russians have already pressed over our frontiers;" 
"The fatherland is in danger;" "They mean to 
humiliate us;" "In the midst of peace the enemy 
falls upon us;" "The existence of the Empire is at 
stake. . . . The existence of German power 
and German character;" "We are called upon to 



156 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

defend our holiest possessions, our fatherland, our 
very hearths, against an unscrupulous attack;" "We 
are fighting for the fruits of our works of peace, 
for the inheritance of a great past and for our 
future." These phrases, all taken from official 
documents, and many more in a similar vein, were 
maliciously used by the dynastically-controlled 
government, with the firm, fixed and conscious 
intention of deliberately deceiving the gullible Ger- 
man people, "of inflaming its patriotism and of 
inspiring it to unutterable and incalculable sacri- 
fices of wealth and life." 

Because of the Prussian system of mind as well 
as body drill, with its resultant mental slavery and 
domination, the Hohenzollerns, with their von Beth- 
manns and von Jagows, as mouthpieces, could whip 
a great people into the frenzy of a besieged, out- 
raged nation, unite all the discordant classes within 
the Empire, and resurrect the spirit which per- 
meated the German people in the Wars of Libera- 
tion, a century past, to be utilized as the driving 
power in the most cruel, lustful and unwarranted 
war of deliberately-planned aggression that the 
world has ever seen. The Prussian dynasty, with 
its despotic and essentially tyrannous absolutism, 
could do this within the German Empire and the 
domain of its absolute power, but it could not 
deceive its Latin Ally on the Mediterranean, whose 
respect for truth and love of freedom had not 
become atrophied by an inordinate ambition, and 
the soul of whose people had not been deadened by 
the oppression of an absolute dynasty, with a throne 
upheld by an intolerant, unscrupulous and peace- 
hating militarism. 

In her diplomatic discussion with Britain, Ger- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 157 

many really demanded a "free hand on the Conti- 
nent." Britain declined to stand idly aside and see 
the Belgian neutrality violated, neither would she 
be an inactive spectator while France was igno- 
miniously crushed. Through her Ministers she 
declared that the one and only way of maintaining 
the good relations between Britain and Germany 
was to work together to preserve peace. In reply 
to the suggestion of the German Chancellor as to 
the neutrality of Britain, Sir Edward Grey advised 
Goschen the British Ambassador at BerHn on July 
30th, in part, as follows: "The British Government 
cannot for a moment entertain the Chancellor's 
proposal that they should bind themselves to 
neutrality on such terms. What he asks us in effect 
is to engage to stand by while French Colonies are 
taken and France is beaten, so long as Germany 
does not take French territory as distinct from the 
Colonies. From the material point of view such a 
proposal is unacceptable, for France, without 
further territory in Europe being taken from her, 
could be so crushed as to lose her position as a 
great power, and become subordinate to German 
policy. Altogether apart from that, it would he a 
disgrace for us to make this bargain with Germany 
at the expense of France, a disgrace from which the 
good name of this country would never recover. 
The Chancellor also, in effect, asks us to bargain 
away whatever obligation or interest we have as 
regards the neutrality of Belgiimi. We could not 
entertain that bargain either.'" 

In the concluding paragraph of Grey's instruc- 
tions to Goschen, we read: "If the peace of Europe 
can be preserved and the present crisis safely 
passed, my own endeavor will be to promote some 



158 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

arrangement to which Germany could be party, by 
which she could be assured that no aggressive or 
hostile policy would be pursued against her or her 
allies by France, Russia and ourselves, jointly or 
separately. I have desired and worked for it, as 
far as I could, through the last Balkan crisis, and 
Germany having a corresponding object, our rela- 
tions sensibly improved. The idea has hitherto 
been too Utopian to form the subject of definite 
proposals, but if this present crisis, so much more 
acute than any other that Europe has gone through 
for generations, be safely passed, I am hopeful that 
the relief and reaction which will follow may make 
possible some more definite rapprochement between 
the Powers, than has been possible hitherto." In 
other words, Grey proposed some form of treaty 
which would guarantee the peace of Europe and 
which would draw together the Triple Entente 
and the Triple Alliance, and substitute for the 
dangerous system of the Balance of Power, a 
general Alliance of Peace, a League of Nations, a 
union of independent European states which might 
have power to be the seed from which would spring 
the much-talked-of "United States of Europe." It 
has been well said that this Alliance of Peace pro- 
posed by Grey was "the embryo out of which the 
Kantian League in the service of peace would have 
issued, without the pains and the danger of travail, 
in the normal course of development." The Ger- 
man Chancellor received this proposal "without 
comment," and no answer was ever made. 

Grey speaks of working for peace "in the Balkan 
crisis," and refers to warlike Germany "having a 
corresponding object" at that time. Austria, with 
the support of Germany, was enabled to annex 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 159 

Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, and this out- 
rageous and aggressive act, instead of really bene- 
fiting Austria-Hungary and the Teuton people, 
fanned into more vigorous life the Great Serbian 
Movement which, notwithstanding the propitiatory 
declaration of Serbia in March, 1909, continued to 
take its course. Austria "to the accompaniment 
of the rattling sabre of her German Ally" turned 
the Montenegrins out of Scutari, which they had 
purchased with their blood and created "that 
Manikin-kingdom of Albania" in the interests of 
the Triple Alliance; and in 1912 a European war 
almost broke out on the question as to whether 
Serbia should receive her much-talked-of "window 
on the Adriatic." In those days, Germany was not 
ready for war, and Austria was permitted to go as 
far as she pleased in her lustful acquisition of 
Balkan power and territory, but she must not bring 
about a conflict between the Triple Alliance and 
the Triple Entente. 

Austria, since 1909, has been aching for a chance 
to fly at Serbia's throat, and, at one time, only the 
submission of Russia and the mediation of Britain 
and the orders of Germany to Austria to wait — 
which is called "Mediations by Germany" — pre- 
vented a European conflict. It is now known that in 
August, 1913, Austria entertained the same inten- 
tions toward Serbia. After the second Balkan war, 
the relations in the Balkans between those states 
immediately concerned were regulated by the 
Treaty of Bucharest. Austria was not satisfied 
with the arrangement to which effect was given, 
maintaining that Serbia received too much and 
Bulgaria too little. She sought to procure a re- 
vision of the treaty, and when Serbia objected, she 



160 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

resolved to force her will upon the small neighbor- 
state by recourse to arms. Giolitti, the Italian 
Prime Minister, has since announced that Austria 
approached her Allies — Germany and Italy — re- 
questing their support. Italy declined to stand 
behind Austria in her plan to wantonly attack 
Serbia, and Germany again cautioned Austria to 
be patient. 

In 1912 the peace strength of the German army 
was raised from 515,000 to 544,000 men, and in 
1913 the new German military law increased the 
army to 870,000 men, and a special levy on prop- 
erty was announced amounting to $250,000,000 to 
he all paid hy July 1st, 1914, and to be spent on 
fortifications, equipment and other capital prepara- 
tions for war. The Imperial Chancellor justilfied 
the tremendous military program and expenditures 
of 1913, because it was "according to the unanimous 
judgment of the military authorities, necessary in 
order to secure the future of Germany" In de- 
fending the measure which Dr. Potthef, in the 
Reichstag, characterized as "not a peace measure" 
but "simply a mobilization," an official statement 
emanating from the dynasty says, "This security 
gives us a free road toward a profitable world- 
policy. We are yet but at the starting point. 
Long roads full of promise open before us." 
During 1913, the Imperial Bank adopted a policy 
of financial mobilization. The German war chest in 
the Julius Tower at Spandau — Bismarck's creation 
to defray the initial cost of mobilization — trebled in 
amount, and when war came, the Reichsbank had 
the heaviest gold reserve in its history ($325,000,- 
000). 

James M. Beck said, in November, 1914, "When 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 161 

full data are accessible as* to the importations by 
Germany in advance of the war, as to its withdrawal 
of foreign credits and placing of foreign loans, its 
sales of stocks by influential investors ... a 
strong . . . case may be developed of a 
deliberate purpose to retrieve the Moroccan fiasco 
by an audacious coup which would determine the 
mastery of Europe." As time passes, more and 
more evidence is coming to light that Germany 
willed the war in 1913, and in the summer of 1914 
was determined to undertake the great military 
adventure when the stars all seemed phenomenally 
favorable for a tremendous German military 
success. 

In the days of the Moroccan dispute and the 
Balkan controversies, Germany was not ready, but 
in 1914 she was ready, and when Austria seemed to 
hesitate at the threshold which led to the greatest 
war and the most devilish crime of all time, Ger- 
many plunged ahead and pulled Austria, and later 
Turkey and Bulgaria, with her into the abyss of 
hell. 

Britain's stand, on July 30th, 1914, in regard to 
Germany and the then threatened European war, is 
well expressed by the German writer of J' Accuse I 
"We will have nothing to do with a neutrality 
which would only increase your lust for war, since 
it would make it more easy for you to succeed in 
war! Instead of this we propose a joint-labor in 
the cause of peace, now and forever, a labor directed 
to the protection of Europe against all further 
catastrophes. We will have nothing to do with 
guarantees such as you offer ; even if these guaran- 
tees were more far-reaching than they really are, 
Britain will have nothing to do with such guaran- 



162 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

tees which only protect you in your dehght in war. 
Britain wants peace for all, and if you break the 
peace, do not count on our standing aside." 

History will concur in the sentiments expressed 
by Mr. Asquith, in the British Parliament on 
August 6th, regarding the meritorious peace work 
of Sir Edward Grey: "This House and this country 
— and, I will add, posterity and history — will 
accord to him what is, after all, the best tribute that 
can be paid to any statesman : that, never derogating 
for an instant or by an inch from the honor and 
interests of his own country, he has striven, as few 
men have striven, to maintain and preserve the 
greatest interests of all countries — universal peace." 

Sir Edward Grey repeatedly urged that the ques- 
tions in dispute (if such really existed outside of 
inordinate Teutonic selfishness) should be con- 
sidered in their "larger aspects," thereby meaning 
the peace and highest welfare of Europe and hu- 
manity. M. Jides Cambon, the French Ambassador 
to Germany, appealed to Jagow "in the name of 
humanity," and the Czar of Russia pleaded with 
Emperor Wilhelm II in the name of God, "to 
prevent the shedding of blood." But the die was 
cast, Germany was prepared for war and deter- 
mined to wage war, and all the efforts of Britain, 
France and Russia for peace were mere unim- 
portant incidents, for war was willed, and the 
Teuton Juggernaut was then moving relentlessly 
forward on its mission of hatred, crueltj^ and death. 

Britain maintained to the last her sanity and 
devotion to deep, underlying human principles, and 
Goschen, the British Ambassador at Berlin, in the 
last dramatic interview with the German Chancellor, 
remarked that it was "a matter of life and death for 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 163 

the honor of Britain, that she should keep her 
solemn engagement to do her utmost to defend 
Belgium's neutrality if attacked," adding "that fear 
of consequences" (as outlined and even threatened 
by Bethmann-Hollweg) "could hardly be regarded 
as an excuse for breaking solemn promises." 

On the very day that Germany sent her troops 
into Belgium and was at active war with France, 
Russia and the violated Belgium, the Imperial 
Chancellor praised Britain for her work in the 
interest of European peace. All that had led to 
war was passed, war was a hideous reality, and 
Britain was hailed by Germany as a champion of 
peace. But Britain that night declared war on 
Germany for violating the neutrality of Belgium, 
and she rushed her "contemptible little army" over 
to the Continent and stripped her fleet for action. 
The "contemptible little army" fought with the 
Belgians and French, and the Germans in their 
mad rush for Paris were defeated at the Marne; the 
British fleet dominated the ocean, two million Ger- 
man reservists were kept in foreign lands and pre- 
vented from joining the German Colors; Teuton 
shipping was swept off the seas, and the Central 
European warring nations effectively blockaded. 
Britain had upset the Teuton calculations and 
British Power had been sufficient, when, added to 
that of the indomitable French and brave Belgians, 
to tip the scales against the arrogant, militaristic 
Germans. Then Hohenzollernism, with its Junkers 
and governmental, intellectual and clerical satel- 
lites, poured forth their wrath at Britain, and on 
December 2nd, 1914, the Imperial Chancellor who, 
four months before had acknowledged Britain as a 



164 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

champion of peace, said, "Where the responsibility 
rests for the greatness of all wars is to us clear. 
. . . The internal responsibility lies on the Gov- 
ernment of Great Britain. . . . England saw 
how things were moving but did nothing to spoke 
the wheel." This assertion of the Chancellor is not 
only exactly the reverse of the truth, but he is abso- 
lutely contradicted by himself and by the official 
documents of all the nations who were drawn into 
the war. 

Bethmann-Hollweg's change of front is char- 
acteristically German. The diplomats of no other 
nation dare attempt, even if they were so disposed, 
to thus crucify truth. Swift's remark about lying 
is applicable to the Germans: "As universal a 
practice as lying is, and as easy a one as it seems, 
it is astonishing that it has been brought to so httle 
perfection even by those who are most celebrated in 
this faculty." Persistent, consistent lying is im- 
possible, for lying is opposed to truth and law, and 
is, therefore, chaotic and anarchical. The Prusso- 
German policy is lawlessness in every field, and 
lying is only consistent with this lawlessness. On 
August 4th, the Imperial Chancellor said that 
Russia had brought on the war. "We are now in a 
state of defense. . . . Necessity knows no law. 
. . . He who is menaced as we are and is fight- 
ing for his highest possession can only consider how 
he is to hack his way through." On December 2nd, 
Britain was accused of bringing on the war and the 
nation which wantonly attacked Belgium, France 
and Russia and which had refused or blocked all 
peace overtures, posed as waging a w^ar of "de- 
fense." Hear what the German poet, Philippi, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 165 

exultingly says of this "defensive" German war of 
ruthless aggression: 

"The earth trembles, the nations shriek, 
The old era sinks into ruin 

* * * * 

Now the world shall have its coat 
Cut according to German measure. 

As far as our swords flash 
And German blood flows 

The circle of the earth shall come 

Under the tutelage of German activity." 

Following the dynastic suggestion that Britain 
should be blamed for the European crime, the sub- 
sidized Hohenzollern lieutenants vented their wrath 
upon the nation that had led in the struggle for 
peace. Hatred of the nation that had blocked Ger- 
many's scheme for world-domination was demanded 
of every patriotic German, and the following out- 
rageous "literary" production, expressive of 
spiritual prostitution and nationalistic hysteria, and 
tj^pical of many other "hymns of hate," won for 
Lessauer the gratitude of the Kaiser and the order 
of Red Eaerle: 



t)^ 



"You will we hate with a lasting hate 
We will never forego our hate. 
Hate by water and hate by land, 
Hate of head and hate of hand. 
Hate of the banner and hate of the crown. 
Hate of seventy millions choking down. 
We love as one, we hate as one. 
We have one foe and one alone — 
England !" 

Still another "classic" is the so-called poem writ- 
ten in the Fall of 1914 by Heinrich Vierordt, which 



166 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

is a sort of modernized chant of the kind used by the 
barbaric IsraeHtes before the days of the ethical 
prophets, when Yahweh was their tribal God : 

"O Germany, hate ! Salvation will come of thy wrath. 
Beat in their skulls with rifle-butts and with axes. 
These bandits are beasts of the chase, they are not 

men. 
Let your clenched fist enforce the judgment of God. 
Afterward thou wilt stand erect on the ruins of the 

world, 
Healed forever of thine ancient madness 
And of thy love for the Alien." 

Prof. Wilhelm Karl (ex-Rector of the Uni- 
versity of Berlin) at the same time wrote, "Every 
German, every warrior abroad, the boy in his play, 
the gray-haired man at home in quiet thought, are 
all aflame for the reckoning with Britain. That for 
them is victory. . . . Hate will further devour, 
it will be passed on to our children and children's 
children." 

As it was ordered by the Prussian dynasty that 
Britain should be accused of being the instigator of 
the great European crime, it was also necessary for 
the HohenzoUern political, intellectual and clerical 
bodyguard to denounce "The European peace- 
maker" — Sir Edward Grey. Prof. Roethe, of 
Berlin, therefore, accommodatingly brands him as 
the "incarnation of abysmal hypocrisy." Pastor 
Tolzien says that Grey "has a cancerous tumor in 
place of a heart, and in the end has to reap the 
infamy he deserves." Oskar Schmitz says, "Grey 
possesses in a singular degree the gift of carrying 
on business with complete control of all emotion and 
elimination of all deep thought." Germanicus, in 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 167 

Britannien und der Krieg (written in the Fall of 
1914), says, "Grey holds honesty in political mat- 
ters to be a blunder and a sin," and H. S. Chamber- 
lain uses, in relation to Grey, Bernhardi's term of 
"shuffling the cards," and says that "the unctuous 
apostle of peace contrived so to shuffle the cards as 
to render war inevitable." Prof. Ernst Haeckel 
goes further still, and in Ewigkeit; Weltkriegsge- 
danken (1915) couples President Wilson with Sir 
Edward Grey. "The President of the United 
States . . . rises in his 'peace' speeches to a 
height of political and religious hypocrisy, in no way 
inferior to that attained by the British 'million- 
murdered' Grey." 



VII. 

Germany Willed the War 
(Second Part) 

DEPUTY BEBEL, who was the leader of the 
Social Democrats up to his death in 1913, 
said in the Reichstag on November 9th, 
1911 : "It is very characteristic that when the Ger- 
man Emperor returned at the end of July from his 
northern trip and it was announced that he and the 
Chancellor and the Secretary of State had deter- 
mined, after a conference in Swinemiide, not to 
begin a war on account of INIorocco, a burst of anger 
and rage should come from a large part of the 
German press. . . . They feared that as far 
as Germany was concerned, the Agadir affair would 
end in shame and disgrace. The same sentiments 
were expressed by a retired Court preacher, and 
within a few months we have seen the spectacle of 
a part of the Protestant clergj'^ in full cry at the 
heels of the war pack. The Evangelical Church 
Journal published an article which concluded with 
these words: "From one end of Germany to the 
other, people voice but one question : — 'When do we 
get our marching orders?' And these are the 
preachers of brotherly love!" 

On the same day, Deputy von Heydebrand de- 
livered in the Reichstag a sensational Pan-German 
speech, in which he, as leader of the feudal Prus- 
sian nobility — the Junkers, practically served notice 
that he and his colleagues would not tolerate the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 169 

failure to seize another occasion to make war. 
Britain was vigorously denounced for supporting 
France and standing in Germany's way — i. e., 
Britain was made the object of the Junker wrath 
because she had refused to stand idly by and see 
France humiliated, robbed and subjugated. "The 
German people," said Heydebrand, "know now 
when they wish to expand on this earth and to find 
a place in the sun — the place to which they are en- 
titled by their rights and their destiny — they know 
now who it is who arrogates to himself the right to 
decide whether that is to be permitted or not, 
. . . The very existence of the nation is at stake 
. . . therefore, I say it is for the Goyernment to 
choose the hour. It is not only the right but also the 
duty of the Government to face that decision and we 
trust that in doing so they will pay due regard to the 
honor of the German nation. And we Germans 
shall be ready — I would have this understood — to 
make any sacrifices that are necessary whenever they 
are required," This speech was warmly applauded 
by the Crown Prince who was present, and fre- 
quently greeted by uproarious and vigorous ap- 
plause, cheers and noisy expressions of enthusiasm 
and commendation from the Right, the Center and 
the National Liberals. It was a typical Prussian 
Junker outburst, the ravings of a Pan-German 
Chauvinist, and it was endorsed by the heir to the 
throne, approved by a large majority of the mem- 
bers of the Reichstag and commented upon favor- 
ably by the press. 

On the following day, November 10th, 1911, Dr. 
Weimer, a Social Democrat, spoke in the Reichstag 
of Britain's persistent attempts to estabhsh pacific 
and mutually satisfactory relations with Germany, 



170 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

and of the German Government's continual refusal 
to accept the hand proffered her in goodwill. "I 
have further to confess that I cannot see a com- 
mendable innovation in what happened here yester- 
day, when the heir to the throne made a public 
demonstration from the gallery of the Chamber 
against the pohcy which the responsible head of the 
Government has followed" in coming to an amicable 
international agreement with Britain and France in 
regard to Morocco. But the assembly was in no 
mental condition to view the truth dispassionately. 
Deputy Bruhan urged the building of dreadnaughts 
at such a rate as would bankrupt Britain if she 
attempted to maintain her naval supremacy, and if 
she succeeded in building the ships "she would not 
have sailors to man them;" and Deputy Lattmann 
said, "The sentiments expressed yesterday by 
Deputy von Heydebrand find an echo in millions of 
German hearts. We members of the Reichstag are 
charged with the duty of giving expression to these 
views and sentiments of our nation." 

Sir Max Waechter, a German residing in Britain, 
wrote an article in the Deutsche Revue (May, 
1913), urging better relations between Germany 
and Britain: "It ought to be very easy to destroy the 
existing prejudices in Britain against Germany by 
frank discussion. In Germany the situation is quite 
different. There one will find important elements 
in the population and especially of the rank and file 
of the common people who are bitterly prejudiced 
against Britain, and the ill-will against Britain is so 
great that the body of the people at the Morocco 
crisis would have hailed an Anglo- German war with 
enthusiasm, without taking account of the conse- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 171 

quences of such a war. . . . The author was at 
the time in Germany and observed with much pain 
the prevailing excitement. Fortunately, the rulers 
did not allow themselves to be turned aside by the 
passions of the masses. The danger is that at an- 
other opportunity the German Government will 
perhaps not be in a position to resist the wishes of 
the people, and will begin a war with Britain to save 
not Germany but itself." 

Otfried Nippold, was for several years with the 
German Foreign Office and is now at the University 
of Berne, Switzerland. At the end of his book Der 
deutsche Cliauvinismus (1913), which consists of a 
collection of statements of prominent Germans ad- 
vocating war and conquests, he says: "The evidence 
submitted amounts to an irrefutable proof that a 
systematic stimulation of the war spirit is going on 
in Germany, emanating from the Pan-German 
League, on the one hand, and the Defense Associa- 
tion ( Wehrverein ) , on the other. One cannot but 
feel deep regret in observing the fact that in Ger- 
many ... ill feeling against other states and 
nations is being stirred up so unjustifiably, and that 
people are being so unscrupulously incited to war." 
Nippold tells of the writers and speakers who "not 
only occasionally incite the people to war but 
systematically inculcate a desire for war in the 
minds of the German people. . . . War is 
represented not merely as a possibility that might 
arise, but as a necessity that must come about and 
the sooner the better. . . . From this dogma 
(that war must come) it is only a step to the next 
Chauvinistic principle, so dear to the hearts of our 
soldier-politicians who are languishing for war — 
the fundamental principle of the aggressive-pre- 



172 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ventive war. If war is to come, then let it come at 
the moment which is favorable to ourselves. In 
other words, do not wait until there is a reason for 
war, but strike when it is the most convenient 
. . . and above all as soon as possible. . . . 
The desire of the political visionaries in the Pan- 
German camp, for, say the conquest of the colonies, 
suits the purpose of our warlike generals very well; 
but to them this is not an end, but only a means. 
War as such is what really matters to them. . . . 
Germany, even if she conquered ever so many 
colonies, would again be in need of war after a few 
decades, since otherwise the German nation would 
again be in danger of moral degeneration. The truth 
is, that, to them, war is a quite normal institution 
of international intercourse, and not in any way a 
means of settling great international conflicts — not 
a means to be resorted to only in case of great 
necessity. . . . There is no real issue today 
anywhere between Germany and the Powers of the 
Triple Entente which could be said to make war 
unavoidable; but that is exactly where the tragedy 
comes in, for those who are inciting the people to 
war. . . . As a matter of fact, if Germany is 
in any danger today, it comes from within rather 
than from without. ... In the absence of any 
real causes of war . . . they (the Pan-Ger- 
mans and subsidized Hohenzollern lieutenants) 
now find themselves compelled to create artificial 
causes. But this can only be done by manufactur- 
ing excitement among the population, by stirring 
up nationalistic feeling and by the systematic culti- 
vation of a warlike spirit — tasks which are being 
sedulously attended to by . . . the Pan-Ger- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 173 

man League, the Defense Association and similar 
organizations." 

The dynasty is absolutely responsible for the 
Pan-German feehngs of the German masses; the 
effects of the poison which it alone has fed to the 
people, embarrassed it in 1911, for the Government 
(i. e., the Hohenzollern dynasty) was not ready to 
wage war on France, Russia and Britain. But plans 
were laid for 1914; the great mihtary law increas- 
ing the army was passed in 1913, additional taxes 
for war preparedness were levied, and in 1913, using 
the excuse of celebrating the centennial of the Wars 
of Liberation (1813), when Prussia threw off the 
yoke of Napoleon, the country was raised by official 
propaganda to patriotic fervor. Nippold, comment- 
ing on this fact says, "One of the principal argu- 
ments which are at present used in order to hypno- 
tize the masses is the analogy of the year 1813. At- 
tempts were made to manufacture a similarity 
between 1813 and 1913, which is not by any means 
warranted by facts. Whereas a hundred years ago 
the German people were compelled to fight for their 
most sacred possessions, today there is no reason 
whatever for a war, unless it be the wish of the 
army to give once more, practical proof of its 
efficiency." 

The words of Albrecht Wirth, penned in 1911 
immediately after the Moroccan incident, have 
proved to be prophetic: "War is only postponed 
and not abandoned. . . . We must wait for a 
better moment. . . . It is not exactly diplo- 
matic to announce publicly to one's adversaries: 'To 
go to war now does not tempt us, but three years 
hence we shall unchain the world war.' . . . 
One's design must be enveloped in profound 



174 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

mystery. Then abruptly, all of a sudden, one jumps 
upon the enemy in the darkness." It is interesting 
in this connection to read in a sermon of Pastor K. 
Konig (September 6th, 1915) that Germans should 
be thankful that the Russian, French and British 
were led into war with Germany as a result of "the 
shots fired at Serajevo;" "Two years too early for 
our enemies, but an act of grace from God for our- 
selves and our Allies. For now we have the lead in 
the iron game of war. . . . Britain, we know 
exactly what trimips you hold, but whether you 
know ours, coming days will show." Britain knows 
today what the trimips are that Germany held: i. e., 
ruthless submarine warfare and connections with the 
Russian Bolslieviki, which, working through a dis- 
honest Reichstag resolution of "No annexations and 
no indemnity" permitted Trotsky and Lenine to 
treacherously sell their countrymen to an unscrupu- 
lous enemy. But Germany with all her boastings 
and her preparations for a war, deliberately willed 
against peace-loving peoples, did not know of the 
cards that were to be played against her. The 
United States of America is a trump now being 
played in the battle for human freedom and justice 
that will jar the Prussianized German Empire from 
top to bottom and overthrow the devilish brute force 
and Machiavellian dynasty responsible for the 
greatest outrage in the history of the world. 

In the Militarisclie Rundschau, July, 1914, 
(quoted in the Annual Register), we read, "If we 
do not decide for war, that war in which we shall 
have to engage, at the latest in two or three years, 
will be begun in far less propitious circumstances. 
At this moment the initiative rests with us. Russia 
is not ready, moral factors and right are on our side. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 175 

as well as might. Since we shall have to accept the 
contest some day, let us provoke it at once. Our 
prestige, our position as a great power, our honor 
are in question, and yet more, for it would seem that 
our very existence is concerned." And in an official 
secret memorandum of the German Government, 
dated Berhn, March 19th, 1913, which fell into the 
hands of the French Minister of War, we read: 
"Neither ridiculous shriekings for revenge by 
French Chauvinists, nor the Englishman's gnashing 
of teeth, nor the wild gestures of the Slavs will 
turn us from our aim of protecting and extending 
Deutschtum (German power and influence) over 
all the world." 

During the first part of 1914, Germany was told 
by the press and from the platform that Der Tag 
was rapidly approaching. "The fateful day draws 
near . . . and even if the twilight of the gods 
be upon us, let it come in furious battle rather than 
in lingering sickliness." (Count du Moulin-Eckart, 
April, 1914). "Germany and Austria-Hungary 

. . cannot avoid war with their eastern and 
western neighbors. . . . Whoever wilfully seeks 
to hide the fateful gravity of a future not far away, 
because he fears the effect on the situation of the 
moment, commits an unpardonable crime against 
the German nation and becomes guilty of high 
treason" (Alldeutsche Blatter, 3Iarch, 1914). 
"That matters are approaching a decision here we 
know" (Admiral Breusing, April, 1914). "A 
struggle is close at hand for the German people, a 
struggle which will determine their fate for a long 
future, perhaps forever" (Resolution of the Pan- 
German League at Stuttgart, April, 1914). 

Baron Beyens, the Belgian Minister, at Berlin in 



176 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

a report to M. Davignon, Belgian Minister for For- 
eign Affairs, dated July 26th, 1914, says, "I must 
remind you of the opinion which prevails in the Ger- 
man General Staff, that war with France and Rus- 
sia is unavoidable and near . . . Such a war, 
warmly desired by the military and Pan- German 
Party, might be undertaken today, so this Party 
thinks, in circumstances which are extremely favor- 
able to Germany, and w^hich probably will not again 
present themselves for some time. Germany has 
finished the strengthening of her army . . . 
and, on the other hand, she feels that she cannot 
carry on indefinitely a race in armaments. Russia 
is considered a menace of increasing military power, 
but her strength will not be formidable for several 
years; at the present moment it lacks the railway 
lines necessary for its deployment; . . . France 
. . . has revealed her deficiency in guns of large 
calibre," and "it is this arm that will decide the fate 
of battles; . . . Britain ... is paralyzed by 
internal dissensions and her Irish quarrels." Beyens 
is also of the opinion that "the ultimatum to Serbia 
is a blow prepared by Vienna and Berlin, or rather 
designed here (Berlin) and executed at Vienna 
. . . The vengeance to be taken for the murder 
of the hereditary Archduke, and the Pan- Serbian 
propaganda would onljr serve as a pretext. The 
object sought, in addition to the annihilation of Ser- 
bia and of the aspirations of the Jugo-Slavs, would 
be to strike a mortal blow at Russia and France in 
the hope that Britain would remain aloof from the 
struggle . . . Berlin and Vienna are at one in 
their desire for immediate and inevitable hostilities 
. . . The paternity of the scheme, as well as the 
procedure employed ... is attributed here 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 177 

(Berlin) to a German rather than an Austrian 
brain. The secret has been well guarded and the 
execution of the scheme followed with marvelous 
rapidity." 

Prince Karl Lichnowsky, the German Ambassa- 
dor at London from 1912 to 1914, in his Memoran- 
dum clearly fixes the personal responsibility for the 
world war upon the German Emperor, and proves 
in a document — not written for publication but for 
the secret archives of the nobleman's family — that 
Wilhelm II was responsible for the Serbian ulti- 
matum, Austria-Hungary's belligerent attitude 
and Germany's aggressive policy of world domina- 
tion. Lichnowsky tells that Germany, at the out- 
break of the Balkan war in 1912, declined "the pro- 
posal of the French Government to join with the 
other Great Powers in a Declaration of disinterest- 
edness and impartiality/" Sir Edward Grey, he 
affirms, for eight months in his role of "honest 
broker" always worked for peace, and "lent his 
good-will and powerful influence toward the estab- 
lishment of an understanding," but "instead of 
adopting the Enghsh point of view" of impartial 
justice "we (Germany) accepted that dictated to us 
by Vienna." If it had not been for Earl Grey and 
his earnest policy of conciliation, void of bias or 
prejudice, and friendly to all — Entente and Alli- 
ance alike — Europe at that time would have been 
plunged into war. 

Prince Lichnowsky, although a Prussian, is intel- 
ligent enough to form his own conclusions and cour- 
ageous enough to express them ; he pays the British 
Foreign Secretary a weU-deserved tribute when he 
says, "Sir Edward Grey conducted the negotiations 
with care, calm and tact. When a question threat- 



178 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ened to become involved, he proposed a formula 
which met the case and always secured consent. He 
acquired the full confidence of all the representa- 
tives." Lichnowsky tells us of Grey's heroic efforts 
in July and August of 1914 to avert the great war, 
how Asquith and Grey both shuddered at the 
thought of the horrible catastrophe that threatened 
the world, and the German Ambassador to Britain 
declared that peace between two great nations "was 
wrecked not by the perfidy of the British, but by the 
perfidy of our (German) policy." And he adds, "I 
had to support in London a (Prusso-German) pol- 
icy which I knew to be fallacious. I was punished 
for it, for it was a sin against the Holy Ghost." 

The Lichnowsky documents prove that Austria 
was as conscienceless and unprincipled as Germany. 
Nominally the cause of war was Austria's, and from 
Austria seems to have come the first definite sug- 
gestion to wage war on Serbia and, if necessary, on 
Russia and France; but the proposal once having 
been seized upon by the Potsdam Conference of 
July 5th, 1914, thereafter Germany — notwithstand- 
ing all her protestations to the contrary — took the 
reins in her own hands and drove remorselessly 
straight down her determined road to war, and the 
final definite word for action was given at Potsdam 
by the Kaiser at the Night Conference of Govern- 
ment Ministers, Staff and Line Army Generals, 
etc., on July 29th, 1914. 

Count Mensdorff, the Austrian Ambassador in 
London, definitely announced to Prince Lichnow- 
sky, the German Ambassador, that "It was not 
Austria but Germany who wanted the war." That 
Germany was determined to plunge Europe into 
war was evident from the Army and Financial Pro- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 179 

gram of 1913, which generally suggested July, 
1914, as the probable time to conmience hostilities. 
The murder of the Austrian Crown Prince at Sera- 
jevo on June 28th, 1914, afforded an excuse for war 
at a very convenient time, for Germany was ready; 
but from recent disclosures it is evident that Ger- 
many had already made her plans for war to take 
place in 1914, and that war would probably have 
occurred if there had been no Serajevo outrage. 
When a country like Germany is determined to 
wage war, it is a simple matter to so "shuffle the 
cards" as to make war inevitable with even the most 
peaceful neighbor-nations. 

The Circular of June 9th, 1914, from the Gen- 
eral Staff to all intendancies, reads: — "Within 24 
hours after receipt of this Circular, you are to 
inform all industrial concerns that the documents 
with industrial-mobilization plans and with regis- 
tration forms, be opened, such as are referred to in 
the Circular of the Commission of Count Waldersee 
and Count Caprivi, of June 27th, 1887;" this, to- 
gether with the Imperial Government's Circular of 
February, 1914, to German Banks, and the Circu- 
lar of June 9th, 1914, from the General Staff to 
German Military Attaches, clearly prove that Ger- 
many expected war, and was preparing for war long 
before the Serajevo murders. German industry 
was mobilized for war three weeks before the assassi- 
nation of the Austro- Hungarian heir apparent, and 
Lichnowsky says that while in Berlin (during the 
first few days of July, 1914), he learned "that 
Tschirschky — the German Ambassador in Vienna 
— had received a rebuke because he reported that he 
had advised moderation in Vienna toward Serbia." 

In talking with Dr. Zimmermann, the Under For- 



180 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

eign Secretary who was representing Jagow, Lich- 
nowsky heard of the reorganization of the Russian 
army (necessitated by the tremendous increase in 
the German army in 1913), and the foreign office 
showed alarm at the fact that Russia was to raise 
more troops and increase the efficiency of her army 
(to cope with the Teuton menace and the German 
military measures of 1913.) Zimmermann's words 
"showed an unmistakable animosity against Russia 
who, he said, was everywhere in our way." We are 
also told that Bethmann-HoUweg "complained 
about Russian armaments." Germany was deter- 
mined to be ready to overwhelmingly defeat at arms 
any or all of her neighbor-nations, but she instantly 
became peeved if any foreign country armed herself 
in self -protection. Lichnowsky was later told that 
in 1916 Russia would have been too strong, and as 
war was inevitable, it was far better to fight in 1914, 
when Germany was ready and Russia was not, than 
in 1916, when Russia would be ready to properly 
defend herself. 

Prince Lichnowsky's revelations should be con- 
sidered in conjunction with the diary, memor- 
andum and letters of Dr. Miihlon, which, together 
with the various official documents and authentic 
reports of interviews of well-kno^vn responsible 
men with Teuton Ministers and officials, have 
definitely lifted the veil from the German actions 
immediately prior to the outbreak of the war, and 
particularly during that month of German stony 
silence, which intervened between the murder of 
the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the presenta- 
tion of the Austrian note to Serbia. 

Dr. Miihlon had some connection with the Ger- 
man Foreign Office, and was one of the Directors of 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 181 

Krupp's, the great German armament firm at 
Essen; he was employed on important business in 
connection with Morocco shortly after the Agadir 
affair, and after he resigned from the Directorate 
of Krupp's he continued to be employed by the 
Foreign Office in connection with Roumanian 
affairs, before that countrj^ became a belligerent 
Power. While associated with Krupp's, Miihlon 
was primarily interested in the commercial side of 
the business, and was thereby brought into close 
contact with the Deutsche Bank, which has played 
such an important part in financing German enter- 
prises in all parts of the world. It was in the ordi- 
nary course of his business that he had. important 
conversations with Helfferich — at that time one of 
the Directors of the Deutsche Bank and afterwards 
imperial Minister of Finance. 

In a Memorandum, MiHilon says, "In the middle 
of July, 1914, as on many other occasions, I had a 
conversation with Dr. Helfferich. . . . There 
were certain big transactions (in Bulgaria and 
Turkey) in which Krupp's took an active interest 
for business reasons (supplying war materials), 
and the Deutsche Bank had adopted a negative 
attitude in the matter. In justification of the 
Bank's attitude, Helfferich gave me several reasons, 
and in conclusion, said 'The political situation is 
very threatening. . . . The Deutsche Bank 
must wait before committing itself further in 
foreign countries. The Austrians have been with 
the Kaiser during the last few days. In eight days' 
time, Vienna will deliver a very sharply-worded 
ultimatum to Serbia which will have a very short- 
time hmit and demand punishment of a number of 
officers, dissolution of political associations, criminal 



182 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

investigations in Serbia with the cooperation of 
officials of the Dual Monarchy. In fact, immediate 
satisfaction will be demanded on a number of 
definite issues, failing which, Austria-Hungary will 
declare war on Serbia. Helfferich added that the 
Kaiser had expressed his decided approval of this 
Austro-Hungarian move. . . . The Kaiser had 
said . . . that he would not allow any other 
state to intervene; that if Russia mobihzed he 
would mobilize, too; that mobilization in his case 
meant immediate war, and that this time there 
should be no wavering. ... I knew that Helf- 
ferich stood in particularly confidential relations 
to those highly-placed persons who were bound to 
be initiated in the matter, and that his communica- 
tion, was therefore, reliable. On returning from Ber- 
lin, I informed Herr Krupp von Boehlen und Hal- 
bach ... as I had been expressly authorized 
to do. . . . Krupp von Boehlen seemed greatly 
surprised that Helfferich should possess such in- 
formation and complained that 'these government 
people can never keep their mouths quite shut,' 
then he proceeded to make the following statement : 
'He had himself been with the Kaiser during the 
last few days. The Kaiser had spoken to him 
about his conversation with the Austrians and its 
result, but had so emphasized the secrecy of the 
matter that he would not have ventured to tell even 
his Board of Directors. But, as I already knew 
about it, he could tell me that Helfferich's state- 
ments were correct. . . . The position was, in 
fact, very critical. The Kaiser had told him he 
would declare war at once if Russia mobilized. 
This time people would see that he would not 
change his mind. The Kaiser's emphatic and re- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 183 

peated asseverations, that this time nobody would 
be able to reproach him with irresolution, had 
produced an almost ludicrous impression.' " Ap- 
parently Willielm II had been chagrined at 
the effect abroad and upon the German people of 
his foreign "mailed fist" and "shining armor" 
attitude of recent years, at his apparent declining 
popularity, and his Jingo son's increasing power 
over the hearts of the people. The world has now 
heard from several sources of the Kaiser's repeated 
insistence in July, 1914, that this time nobody would 
be able to accuse him of indecision, for he himself 
willed the war. 

Miihlon's Memorandum continues :' Vienna s ulti- 
matum to Serbia made its appearance on the very 
day which Helfferich had predicted to me. I was 
again in Berlin at the time and said frankly to 
Helfferich that I found the ultimatum, in form and 
in content, simply monstrous. . . . Helfferich 
told me that the Kaiser's Scandinavian cruise was 
only a blind . . . that he was keeping in con- 
stant communication with Berlin and near enough 
to be reached at any moment. All one could do 
now was to wait and see what happened. One 
must hope that the Austrians — who of course did 
not expect the ultimatum to be accepted — would act 
quickly, before the other Powers had time to inter- 
fere. The Deutsche Bank had already made its 
preparations so that it was ready for all eventuali- 
ties. ... It was keeping all gold as it was 
paid in, and not returning it to circulation. Very 
soon after the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, the 
German Government issued an announcement to 
the effect that Austria-Hungary had acted on its 
own account without Germany's foreknowledge. 



184 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

If one endeavored to reconcile this announcement 
with the events herein described, the only possible 
solution was that the Kaiser had already committed 
himself, without allowing his Government any hand 
in the matter. . . . Krupp von Boehlen, with 
whom I discussed the German official announce- 
ment — which in effect, at any rate, was a lie — dis- 
approved of it as much as I did, because Germany 
ought never to have given carte blanche on such a 
momentous issue to a state like Austria. . . . 
Krupp von Boehlen considered that the German 
denial of foreknowledge, if there was any trace of 
truth in it, sinned against the elementary rules of 
the art of political diplomacy. . . . After he 
(Krupp von Boehlen) had spoken to Secretary von 
Jagow (a particular friend of Herr von Boehlen) 
he gave me the following account of the interview : 
'Herr von Jagow persisted in assuring him that he 
had taken no part in composing the text of the 
Austro-Hungarian ultimatum; ... by the 
time he was informed of the matter . . . the 
Kaiser was so deeply committed that it was already 
too late to take any steps consistent with diplomatic 
usage, and that there was nothing more to be done. 
The situation had become such that it was impossible 
any longer to propose any reservations and con- 
ditions. Moreover, he (Jagow) had come to the 
conclusion that there would be one advantage in 
the omission, viz., that a good effect would be pro- 
duced in Petrograd and Paris by the announcement, 
which Germany would be able to make, that we had 
not collaborated in the Viennese ultimatum.' " 

As a further proof that Germany willed the war, 
following a conference of the German Emperor and 
Austrian representatives, and that at a meeting of 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 185 

July 5th, 1914, all German interests and depart- 
ments became pledged to enthusiastically support 
the war, we can quote Henry Morgenthau, former 
American Ambassador to Turkey, who says, 
"Baron Wangenheim, the German Ambassador at 
Constantinople . . . informed me (August 
26th, 1914) that a conference had been held in 
Berlin in the early part of July, 1914, at which the 
date of the war was fixed. This conference was pre- 
sided over by the Kaiser; Baron Wangenheim was 
present to report on the conditions in Turkey. 
Moltke, the Chief of Staff, was there, and so was the 
Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. With them were the 
leaders of German finance, the Directors of the 
Railroads and the captains of industry. . . . 
Each was asked if he were ready for the war. All 
replied in the affirmative except the financiers, who 
insisted that they must have two weeks in which to 
sell foreign securities and arrange their loans. 
. . . It was not to me alone that Baron Wan- 
genheim told the story of this Berlin conference. 
. . . Marquis Garroni, the Italian Ambassador 
at Constantinople, announced that Baron Wangen- 
heim said the same thing to him, Italy at that time 
being a member of the Triple Alliance." Mr. 
Morgenthau also says, "On August 18th, 1914, as 
American Ambassador at Constantinople, I called 
on the Marquis of Pallavicini, the Austro-Hun- 
garian Ambassador. . . . The conversation 
turned to the war, which was in the third week, and 
His Excellency told me that when he visited the 
Emperor in May, His Imperial Majesty had said 
that war was inevitable." 

In a Memorandum of August Thyssen, a German 
iron master and capitalist, we read, "A large num- 



186 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ber of business and commercial men were asked to 
actively support the Hohenzollern war policy on the 
ground that it would pay them to do so. . . . 
Not only were promises made by the Chancellor but 
they were confirmed by the Emperor, who, on three 
different occasions, addressed private gatherings of 
prominent business men in Berlin, Munich and 
Cassel. . . . Huge indemnities were to be 
levied on the conquered nations, and the fortunate 
German manufacturers, etc., were by this means to 
be relieved of taxation for years after the war." 
Thyssen also speaks of having been promised by the 
Government a free grant of land in a foreign colony 
and a substantial loan of money to exploit it, if the 
war ended as satisfactorily for Germany as was 
fully expected. 

It is interesting to note that the German Official 
Press Bureau, during the latter part of July and 
the first few days of August, 1914, prepared the 
people for war, aroused their passions and fanned 
their patriotic feelings into raging flames by the 
censorship and treatment of news — the exaggera- 
tion and falsification of some items, the dehberate 
fabrication of others, and the elimination of some 
of the most important happenings. For instance, 
the German Government gave the Austrian ulti- 
matimi to Serbia to the press after preparing 
the public mind to receive it, but they deliberate^ 
withheld the conciliatory Serbian reply, with the 
result that the Berlin populace — knowing nothing 
of Serbia's humiliating answer and her strong desire 
for peace, in which she was supported by Russia — 
proceeded to make riotous demonstrations and vent 
their wrath upon the Serbian and Russian Em- 
bassies. After the Kaiser had determined on war 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 187 

and decided to use the Serajevo outrage as an 
excuse to precipitate hostilities, every means known 
to mold public opinion, no matter how unscrupulous, 
was resorted to, and the German Government's 
attitude to the German people, as well as to foreign 
governments, presents one of the most contemptible 
chapters in the history of peoples. 

M. Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador to 
Germany, noticed in 1913 that "the impatience of 
the soldiers," i. e., the German General Staff and 
prominent Line Officers, and the growing popu- 
larity of the Chauvinistic Crown Prince had ap- 
preciably affected the mental attitude of the 
Kaiser in regard to peace, and specifically with 
reference to France. Under date of November 
22nd, 1913, Cambon wrote from Berlin, in a con- 
fidential state report, of a conversation reported 
between Wilhelm II and the King of the Belgians, 
in the presence of General von Moltke, Chief of the 
General Staff. "The German Emperor is no longer 
. . . the champion of peace against the bellicose 
tendencies of certain German parties. Wilhelm II 
has been brought to think that war with France is 
inevitable and that it will have to come one day or 
the other. The Emperor, it need hardly be said, 
believes in the crushing superiority of the German 
army and in its assured success. General von 
Moltke spoke in exactly the same sense as his 
sovereign. He also declared that war was neces- 
sary and inevitable, but he showed himself still more 
certain of prompt success. 'For,' said he, Hhis time 
we must put an end to it, and your Majesty can 
hardly doubt the irresistible enthusiasm which on 
that day will carry away the whole German 
people.' " Cambon further stated that the King of 



188 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the Belgians protested — "he spoke of the pacific 
and friendly attitude of the French and denounced 
the Pan-German 'hot-heads' and 'conscienceless 
intriguers,' " but "the Emperor and his Chief of 
General Staff none the less persisted in their point 
of view. During this conversation, Wilhelm II ap- 
peared over- wrought and irritable. . . . One 
may ask what lay behind the conversation? The 
Emperor and his Chief of General Staff may have 
intended to impress the King of the Belgians, arid to 
lead him not to resist, in case a conflict with us 
(France) should aiisef' 

The mental attitude of the United States and 
Britain in regard to war is the same. The peaceful 
settlement of international disputes is largely a gift 
of the English-speaking peoples to the modern 
world. It was introduced in the practice of nations 
by the Jay Treaty of 1794, between the United 
States and Great Britain, and it is the traditional 
policy of the United States to endeavor, to the 
utmost of its power consistent with honor, to settle 
all international disputes by means of arbitration. 
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he;" the same 
tn ith is applicable to nations, and Dr. McElroy has 
well said, "A nation that trains her sons to place 
their hands upon their swords when differences arise 
is a military nation. Britain and America have 
come to teach their sons to think first of peaceful 
means; hence the century of peace so lately cele- 
brated between them; hence that glorious line of 
frontier between the United States and the British 
possessions in Canada, unmarred by hidden mine or 
frowning bastion." 

Why should not the Franco-German and Russo- 
German frontiers be the same as the Canada-United 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 189 

States frontier? One potent reason is that there 
can be no peaceful unfortified frontier where a 
dynasty is in power. The German "philosophy" of 
immoralism, of "might makes right," and "necessity 
knows no law," is typically dynastic; the Anglo- 
Saxon and Latin philosophy today is democratic 
and peaceful. "The world must be made safe for 
democracy," is the battle-cry of nations essentially 
democratic, who are allied together in defense of 
their homelands and their spiritual culture, which 
have been wantonly attacked by a lustful, cruel, 
militaristic despotism that seeks to enslave the civi- 
lized world. The Allies are fighting today, not for 
conquest, but to prevent it; they are. waging a 
defensive war in the interest of the great human 
Ideal of Freedom, of self-government and oppor- 
tunity to develop, unrestrained and unterrified by 
the menace of an armed and predatory autocracy. 

Germany has persistently refused the offers of 
the United States, first made by Mr. Root and 
renewed by Mr. Bryan, to conclude a general 
arbitration treaty between this country and Ger- 
many, and this fact is a most significant one. Any 
nation that is unwilling to enter into a pacific agree- 
ment with some other nation, and submit their dif- 
ferences to an International Tribunal or Board of 
Arbitration, does not desire perpetual peace, but is 
merely lying in wait for a favorable opportunity to 
grab by force what it could never obtain by law and 
justice. Germany's fundamental faith in force 
rather than right, finds expression in her persistent 
hostility to international law and contempt for 
treaty obligations. 



VIII. 



The Belgian Outrage 

THE German leaders of national thought — the 
subsidized, intellectual bodyguard of Hohen- 
zollernism — revel in justifying the present 
outrageous war of ruthless aggression by reference 
to Biblical precedent. "The devil himself," it was 
once aptly said, "quotes Scripture freely to justify 
his acts," and modern German pastors seek to 
vindicate the depraved inhuman conduct of a pro- 
fessed civilized and cultured Christian people of the 
twentieth century, by referring to a parallelism in 
the actions or in the law covering the doings of a 
Semitic, nomad tribe of barbarians over three mil- 
lenniums ago. 

Pastor Martin Hennig in Der Krieg und Wir 
(1914) had undoubtedly the outrageous ravishing 
of Belgium in mind when he wrote, "When the 
people of Israel had to demand a passage through 
foreign territory, they were expressly enjoined first 
to offer the inhabitants peace (Deut. 20:10-14). 
Only when the right of transit was denied them, was 
the sword to be drawn and the passage forced. In 
such a case . . . Israel calls the wars in which 
it has to engage, wars of Jehovah ( Yahweh ) . Its 
God is indeed a Man of War, the Lord of the Hosts 
of Israel. The Scriptures even go so far as to 
ascribe the subsequent corruption of the people to 
the fact that it did not completely annihilate the 
inhabitants of the conquered country." The pas- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 191 

sage from the ancient Deuteronomic Code, long 
since discarded by all right-thinking Jews, and 
absolutely repudiated in spirit by the ethical 
prophets of Judaism and by the Christ, is resur- 
rected from barbarian antiquity to justify the con- 
duct of the cruel, lustful and essentially irreligious 
Pan-Germans: "When thou drawest nigh unto a 
city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. 
And it shall be, if it make thee an answer of peace 
and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the 
people that is found therein shall become tributary 
unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will 
make no peace with thee, but will make war against 
thee, then shalt thou besiege it. And when the Lord 
thy God delivereth it into thy hands, thou shalt 
smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. 
But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, 
and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, 
shalt thou take for a prey unto thyself, and thou 
shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies which the Lord 
thy God hath given thee." In the German mind, 
"Necessity knows no law," and, as Prof. Adolf 
Harnack, the noted ecclesiastical historian of Berlin, 
has said "When Germany makes up her national 
mind that she needs something or wants something, 
at that moment the letter of the law no longer 
exists." 

Germany's outrageous action in regard to 
Belgium is in keeping with the doctrine of Teu- 
tonia's great apostle of "Immoralism," for in 
Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche says, "One has 
duties only to one's equals," and "one may act 
toward beings of a lower rank, toward all that is 
foreign, just as seems good to one." There is no 
such thing, therefore, as ethics and rightness in inter- 



192 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

national affairs, and Germans admit of no duty to a 
neighbor-nation, unless that neighbor is powerful 
enough to command military respect, and demand 
with a threatening sword that Germany act with a 
semblance of morality. Nietzsche also says in the 
same work, "One must . . . resist all senti- 
mental weakness: life is essentially appropriation, 
injury, the conquest of whatever is foreign to us and 
weaker than ourselves, suppression, severity, and 
hardness, the forcing upon others of our own forms 
and beliefs, the incorporation of others, or, at the 
very least and mildest, their exploitation." 

In A Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche says, "That 
the lambs should bear a grudge against the great 
birds of prey is in no way surprising; but that is no 
reason why we should blame the great birds of prey 
for picking up the lambs. . . . To demand of 
strength that it should not manifest itself as 
streng-th, that it should not be a will for overcoming, 
for overthrowing, for mastery, a thirst for enemies, 
for struggles and triumphs, is as absurd as to 
demand of weakness that it should manifest itself as 
strength." This is the quintessence of the doctrine 
of brute force, of physical power void of spirit and 
all moral restraint; it is the fundamental, actuating 
belief of Prussianism and Pan-Germanism. 

Prof. Wilhelm Dibelius of Hamburg likens the 
horrible outrage perpetrated upon Belgium to a 
man who carries "on a furious fight for life, and 
cannot concern himself overmuch as to whether 
some flowers are trodden down in his neighbor's 
garden;" Prof. Hermann Oncken of Heidelberg 
writes, with reference to the violation of Belgium, 
"The destinies of the immortal great nations (and 
they are neither immortal nor great unless they are 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 193 

Teuton) stand so high that they cannot but have the 
right, in case of need, to stride over the existences 
that cannot defend themselves," and Frymann in 
Wenn ich dar Kaiser ware ( 1913) , says, "Only that 
state can make a claim to independence which can 
make it good, sword in hand." 

Germany claims that she violated the neutrality 
of Belgium because, if she had not done so, France 
would have ; in making such a statement the German 
Government knows it to be absolutely false. The 
inconsistent thing about a he is, as Germany is find- 
ing out, that it requires the company of several lies 
to keep up its appearance. The brainiest liar in the 
world sooner or later gets caught in a hopeless laby- 
rinth, and his only salvation is to right-about-face, 
grab the thread of truth and make for light. It is 
much easier to tell the truth, for truth is law and is 
consistent, whereas falseness is absence of truth and 
law — chaos. In a frantic effort to justify herself, 
Germany has talked too much, and everything that 
she has said has contradicted some other official 
statement. A German democrat writing from the 
freedom of Switzerland has said, "These (German) 
confessions are, of course, unintentional. They do 
not have the purifying intention and the force of 
self-accusations as known to Christianity. . . 
They are confessions arising from imprudence; he 
who is confessing believes that he is justifying him- 
self, whereas he is really accusing himself. He 
believes that he is defending himself, and he delivers 
into the hands of his accusers priceless material for 
his condemnation." 

On August 4th, 1914, Bethmann-Hollweg, in the 
Reichstag, said, "Necessity knows no law. Our 
troops have occupied Luxemburg and have perhaps 



194 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

already entered Belgium. This is contrary to the 
dictates of international law. . . . The wrong 
— I speak openly — the wrong we are thereby com- 
mitting we shall endeavor to make good, as soon as 
our military aims have been attained." During the 
preceding week, France had definitely and posi- 
tively pledged herself to respect the neutrality of 
Belgiimi, but Germany had declined to commit her- 
self in writing, for the Chancellor and Foreign 
Minister well knew that the plans of the General 
Staff, prepared years before, contemplated attack- 
ing France not on the restricted Franco-German 
border, between the protecting forts of Verdun and 
Belfort, but through Belgium — where the French 
frontier was not so well fortified, because of the 
French faith in the treaty that had made Belgium a 
neutral country, with the neutrality guaranteed by 
Prussia, Austria, Russia, France and Britain. 

A dynastic government glories in its Machiavel- 
lian deception. On April 29th, 1913, Herr von 
Jagow, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
replying to a question asked in the Reichstag by a 
member of the Social Democratic Party, said, "The 
neutrality of Belgiimi is determined by inter- 
national conventions, and Germany is resolved to 
respect these conventions." This declaration did 
not apparently satisfy many of the members of the 
Social Democratic Party, and replying to further 
questions requesting more definite and specific 
information regarding German plans, Herr von 
Jagow observed that he "had nothing to add to the 
clear statement which he had uttered with reference 
to the relations between Germany and Belgium." 
At that time Jagow knew full well that he was lying, 
that Germany was preparing for a war of conquest. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 195 

and that the plan of attack of the General Staff 
contemplated violating the neutrality of Luxem- 
burg and Belgium ; this is clearly proven by the fact 
that the construction of strategic military railways 
io the Belgian Frontier had been begun in 1906. 

During the same debate on the question of arma- 
ments and the neutrality of Belgium, Herr von 
Herrigen, the Minister of War, in reply to further 
interrogations from the Social Democrats said, 
"Belgium does not play any part in the justifica- 
tion of the German scheme of military reorganiza- 
tion; the scheme is justified by the position of the 
matter in the East. Germany will not lose sight of 
the fact that Belgian neutrality is guaranteed by 
international treaties." It is true that the General 
Staff did not lose sight of Belgian neutrality, but 
that did not prevent it from deliberately planning, 
in cold blood, to violate it. 

In 1911, Dutch newspapers reported that in the 
event of a Franco-German war, it had been learned 
that the neutrality of Belgium would be violated by 
Germany. The matter was referred by the Belgian 
Government to the German Chancellor, with the 
suggestion that a declaration to the contrary, made 
by him in the Reichstag, "would be calculated to 
appease public opinion and to calm its suspicion." 
Bethmann-Hollweg in reply instructed the German 
Ambassador at Brussels to assure the Belgian 
Foreign Minister that he was most appreciative of 
the sentiment that had inspired Belgium's action. 
He declared that Germany had no intention of 
violating the neutrality of Belgitim, but he con- 
sidered that a public declaration by Germany would 
weaken her military preparation with respect to 
France, who, being reassured in the northern 



196 THE GERMAX OBSESSIOX 

quarter, would direct her forces to the eastern 
quarter. 

On July 31st, 1914, Da^dgnon, the Belgian 
Foreign ^linister, in conversation with Below- 
Saleske, the German Minister at Brussels, asked 
him whether he knew of the assurances which had 
been given by Betlmiann-Hollweg through the Ger- 
man Ambassador at Brussels to the Government of 
Belgiimi in 1911. and Below-Saleske replied that he 
did, and added that '"he was certain that the senti- 
ment to which expression was given at that time had 
not changed."' Thus, on July 31st. 1914, two days 
after the German Government had finally approved 
the plans of the General Staff, Germany, through its 
accredited representative at Brussels, repeated the 
assurances contained in the treaty of 1839, as re- 
affirmed in 1870, and again reaffirmed in 1911 and 
1913. 

As the limit of Machiavellian unscrupulousness, 
however, we might mention that on August 2nd, 
1914, only a few hours before handing over the 
official German ultimatum to Belgium, Below- 
Saleske gave to Da^^gnon, the Belgian Foreign 
Minister the most definite and quieting assurance 
regarding Germany's determination to respect her 
treaty obhgations. TMien Davignon expressed his 
pleasure, and requested that this good news be given 
to him in writing, so that he could forward it to 
Brussels, Below-Saleske regretted that "he had not 
yet received any instructions in this sense." 

France gave an official declaration to the Belgian 
Government pledging her respect of her small 
neighbor-nation's neutrality. German ^Ministers 
talked in the same strain, until seven o'clock in the 
evening of August 2nd, when they cold-bloodedly 



THE GERMAX OBSESSIOX 197 

demanded the Belgian sanction of their violation of 
her neutrahty. Of all the nations of the earth,. Ger- 
many is the only one so depraved in sense of honor 
and fair dealing, that she could stoop to such con- 
temptible and malicious deception. The brave little 
nation of Belgium was attacked without any real 
warning, for the Prusso-German hordes must not be 
delayed in their victorious march on Paris by any 
sentimental consideration. 

To obtain initial military- success, Germany was 
wilhng to sell her soul, and no one today knows 
better than she what a bad bargain it was. It 
seemed worth wliile to sacrifice a peaceful, small, 
and therefore relatively weak nation, to attack a 
peace-loving people whom she chose to brand as an 
enemy, and on a front which she had sworn not only 
not to violate but to protect from the very thing that 
she deliberately planned in cold blood, during years 
of peace and pretended goodwill. Tliis act was the 
beginning of her undoing, and her everv lie and 
cruel deed have only acted as boomerangs, far more 
deadly to herself than to her enemies, until today 
she stands the cruel tyrant beast among nations, but 
wounded unto death with her own shafts of deceit 
and cruelty. 

The Imperial Chancellor, who. on August 4th, 
1914, admitted Germany's moral wrong in the viola- 
tion of the terms of a treaty and the invasion of 
Belgium, had previously declared in the Reichstag, 
when accused in the ^Ia?ines?nonn affair of showinsr 
excessive pHability toward foreign countries, "I 
will never make myself a party to a pohcy of break- 
ing treaties."' These were brave words, but Beth- 
mami-Hollweg soon forgot them, and not only 
capitulated to the Pan-German party, the dynastic- 



198 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Junker war party, the Chauvinistic camarilla of the 
Crown Prince, and the army leaders and national- 
istic Jingoes, but at the war conference held on the 
evening of July 29th, 1914, he became their mouth- 
piece and slave. 

The German Chancellor promised to "try and 
make good" to Belgium "the wrong we are . . . 
committing." The German idea of "making good" 
has been evidenced by the greatest atrocities, bar- 
barities, devilish intolerance, inhumanity and injus- 
tice that the world has ever seen. Herbert Hoover 
succinctly describes the conditions existing in 
Belgium, "The sight of the destroyed homes and 
cities, the widowed and fatherless, the destitute, the 
physical misery of a people but partially nourished 
at best, the deportation of men by tens of thousands 
to slavery in German mines and factories, the execu- 
tion of men and women for paltry effusions of loyalt j'- 
to their country, the sacking of every resource 
through financial robbery, the maintenance of armies 
on the slender produce of the country, the denuda- 
tion of the country of cattle, horses and textiles ; all 
these things we had to witness, imable to help other 
than by protest and sympathy during this long and 
terrible time — and still these are not the effects of 
battle heat, but the effects of the grinding heel of a 
race demanding the mastership of the world." 

This is the working of German reparation for a 
wrong committed, a wrong "deplored" in the early 
days of August, 1914, as necessary for German 
military success, but a wrong that was soon for- 
gotten, and that a little later was defended as fully 
justifiable and proper. The Prussian dynastically- 
controlled conscience is lacking in both depth and 
constancy; it may flutter with faint symptoms of 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 199 

regret for a moment, but it knows no criterion but 
convenience. 

In 1870 Britain adopted the same honorable 
attitude in regard to the neutrahty of Belgium that 
she did in 1914. British policy during the past 
century has been to maintain and to protect the 
inviolability of the neutral small states of Northern 
Europe. When Prussia and France approached 
war in 1870, Bismarck knew and respected the atti- 
tude of Britain, so the wily politican wrote to the 
Belgian Minister in Berlin on July 22nd, 1870, "In 
confirmation of my verbal assurance, I have the 
honor to give you in writing a declaration which, in 
view of the treaties in force, is quite superfluous, 
that the Confederation of the North and its Allies 
(Germany) will respect the neutrality of Belgium 
on the understanding, of coiu'se, that it is respected 
by the other belligerent." Bismarck did not want 
Britain for a mihtary adversary, and by further 
treacherously publishing an outline of a treatj?^ 
drawn up by Benedetti, the French Ambassador 
(but which was really written at his, Bismarck's 
suggestion), in which France desired the annexa- 
tion of Belgium as compensation for permitting 
Prussia to acquire Schleswig-Holstein, Bismarck 
won moral support in Britain and caused popular 
sentiment to veer to the side of the Prussians. 
Britain had declared that if either of the belligerent 
powers violated Belgium, she would associate herself 
with the other in its defense. The threatened action 
(Prussian-inspired) of Napoleon III in regard to 
Belgium, was described by Gladstone in the British 
Parliament as "the direst crime that ever stained 
the pages of history," and Britain was so insistent 
that the treaty be honored by both belligerent 



200 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

powers, that Belgium would not furnish supplies to 
either combatant, and after the battle of Sedan, 
Germany was even refused permission to move some 
of her wounded troops through Belgium. 

It wiU stand forever to the credit of France that 
when a French army of a hundred thousand gallant 
men was wedged up against the Belgian frontier 
in 1870, and every avenue of escape to French terri- 
tory was cut off by a semicircle of Prussian cannon, 
the military chiefs did not even consider the viola- 
tion of the neutrality of Belgium, hut preferred 
ruin, humiliation and capture to the breaking of 
their bond. Had this French army violated Belgian 
neutrahty, they might have extricated themselves 
from the Prussian trap and changed the whole 
history of the Franco-Prussian war. When it was 
to the positive interest of France to break the treaty 
in regard to Belgium; when she stood between 
defeat with honor and escape with dishonor, France 
heroically proved to the world that Gallic chivalry, 
integrity and self-respect were still ascendent over 
the baser and militaristic forces which suggested 
nationalistic advantage and success without regard 
to the means employed. France, in 1870, nobly 
repudiated the Prussian theory that treaties are 
"mere scraps of paper," which "only bind you when 
it is to your interest to keep them." France proved 
that law should be recognized no matter what the 
evident necessity may be, or the selfish advantage in 
breaking it may offer. 

It is interesting to recall the Belgian people's 
deep appreciation of the attitude of Britain with 
respect to the neutrality of Belgium during the 
stormy period of 1870. After Britain had definitely 
taken her stand and proclaimed that she would 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 201 

defend the independence, liberty and integrity of 
her small and peaceful neighbor in full accordance 
with treaty obligations, and after Germany and 
France had announced in response to Britain's 
demand, their willingness to respect the neutrahty 
of Belgium, the Municipality of Brussels addressed 
to the British Government a document of gratitude 
which reads in part: "The great and noble people, 
over whose destinies you preside, has just given a 
further proof of its benevolent sentiments toward 
our country. . . . The voice of the British 
nation has been heard above the din of arms and it 
has asserted the principles of justice and right. 
Next to the unalterable attachment of the Belgian 
people to their independence, the strongest senti- 
ment which fills their hearts is that of an imperish- 
able gratitude." 

Germany's moral obligation in regard to Belgium 
was admitted and reaffirmed in the Second Inter- 
national Peace Conference, held at the Hague in 
1907, when Germany signed the articles defining 
"The rights and duties of neutral powers," and in 
so doing endorsed and agreed to abide by the exist- 
ing international law. The pertinent parts of this 
compact with reference to the sanctity of neutral 
territorj^ are : 

(a) The territory of neutral powers is inviolable. 

(b) Belligerents are forbidden to move troops or 

convoys of either munitions of war or sup- 
plies, across the territory of a neutral power. 

(c) The fact of a neutral power resisting, even by 

force attempts to violate its neutrality, 
cannot be regarded as a hostile act. 

According to the terms of the treaty of 1839, 
Prussia, France, Britain, Austria and Russia, the 



202 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

five great European Powers of the time, jointly 
became "the guarantors" of the "perpetual 
neutrality" of the independent state of Belgium. 

On July 31st, 1914, Britain was apprehensive — 
and not without reason — as to the sincerity of Ger- 
many's oft-repeated protestations of good faith, 
and directed her Ambassadors at Paris and Berlin 
to ask the respective Governments of France and 
Germany "whether each is prepared to respect the 
neutrality of Belgium provided it is violated by no 
other power." The French Government, through 
Viviani, Minister of Foreign Affairs, promptly 
replied that it "is resolved to respect the neutrality 
of Belgium; this assurance has been given several 
times. The President of the Republic spoke of it 
to the King of Belgium, and the French Minister 
to Brussels has spontaneously renewed the assur- 
ance to the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs 
today" (July 31st, 1914). In the Belgian Gray 
Book we read (No. 15) that the French Minister 
at Brussels delivered the following official declara- 
tion to the Belgian Government on August 1st: 
"I am authorized to declare that in the event of an 
international conflict, the Government of the Re- 
public will, as it has always declared, respect the 
neutrality of Belgium." 

But the British Ambassador at Berlin was unable 
to obtain any definite statement from the German 
Government. Herr von Jagow replied to the 
British enquiry that "he must consult the Emperor 
and the Chancellor before he could possibly answer," 
and he added, significantly, that for strategic rea- 
sons "it was doubtful whether they would return 
any answer at all." Goschen, the British Am- 
bassador, submitted the matter to Bethmann-Holl- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 203 

weg, who also evaded the question, stating that 
"Germany would in any case desire to know the 
reply returned ... by the French Govern- 
ment." 

On August 2nd, the German Minister at Brussels 
handed to the Belgian Government an astounding 
document which falsely claimed contemplated 
aggression on the part of France, and added, "The 
German Government would feel keen regret if 
Belgium should regard as an act of hostility against 
herself, the fact that the measures of the enemies 
of Germany oblige her on her part to violate 
Belgian territory." In the early morning of August 
3rd, Belgium delivered to the German Ambassador 
in Brussels its reply to the German demands, a 
truly noble document which says in part : 

"The treaties of 1839, confirmed by the treaties of 
1870, established the independence and neutrality of 
Belgium under the guarantee of the Powers, and par- 
ticularly of the Government of His Majesty, the 
King of Prussia. 

"Belgium has always been faithful to her inter- 
national obligations ; she has fulfilled her duties in a 
spirit of loyal impartiality; she has neglected no 
effort to maintain her neutrality or to make it re- 
spected. 

"The attempt against her independence with which 
the German Government threatens her would con- 
stitute a flagrant violation of international law. No 
strategic interests justifies the violation of that law. 

"The Belgian Government would, by accepting the 
propositions which are notified to her, sacrifice the 
honor of the nation while at the same time betraying 
her duties toward Europe. 

"Conscious of the part Belgium has played for 
more than eighty years in the civilization of the 
world, she refuses to believe that her independence 



204 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

can be preserved only at the expense of the violation 
of her neutrality. If this hope were disappointed, 
the Belgian Government has firmly resolved to re- 
pulse by every means in her power any attack upon 
her rights." 

The document also notifies the German Govern- 
ment that "the intentions which it attributed to 
France" (of contemplating the invasion of Belgium 
— and which the Germans knew to be false) "are in 
contradiction with the express declarations which 
were made to us on August 1st in the name of the 
Government of the French Republic," but "if con- 
trary to our expectations, a violation of Belgian 
neutrality were to be committed by France, Belgium 
would fulfil all her international duties and her 
army would offer the most vigorous opposition to 
the invader." 

Belgium knew full well that she was facing 
possible annihilation, but she stood firmly and nobly 
for her honor and independence; her actions 
throughout the crisis, and during the eventful period 
when her small but courageous army held back for 
weeks the Teuton hordes in their advance on Paris, 
literally standing in the breach between savagery 
and civilization, recall the Roman tribute given in 
the days of Caesar that "Of all the tribes of Gaul, 
the Belg£e are the bravest." 

On the morning of August 4th, 1914, the Belgian 
Government received the German declaration of 
war. "In consequence of the (Belgian) Govern- 
ment . . . having declined the well-intended 
proposals submitted to them by the Imperial 
Government, the latter will, deeply to their regret" 
(but in harmony with well-developed plans, ar- 
ranged in detail years before) "be compelled to 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 205 

carry out — if necessary by force of arms — the 
measures of secui'ity which have been set forth as 
indispensable in view of the French menaces." 

The Germans everlastingly harped on French 
aggression, in spite of the fact that to avoid even 
the appearance of aggression, all French troops had 
been withdrawn ten kilometers from their national 
border; and the early aggressive and hostile acts 
had been performed by the Germans who admittedly 
had crossed over into French territory and shed 
innocent blood. On July 30th, i. e., the day follow- 
ing the German War Conference, at which time it 
was firmly decided to go ahead and wage war with 
vigor on France and Russia, the German army was 
on the Frontier, and on that day German patrols 
twice penetrated French territory, causing the 
population to vigorously protest and appeal to their 
Government for protection. 

On August 4th, immediately following the 
delivery of the German declaration to the Belgian 
Government, German troops invaded Belgium and 
hostilities commenced. On the same day Bethmann- 
Hollweg made his famous "Necessity knows no 
law" Reichstag address. He admitted that "the 
French Government had declared at Brussels that 
France is willing to respect the neutrality of 
Belgium. . . . France could wait, hut we'" 
(being in a hurry to reach Paris) ''could not. Any- 
body . . . fighting for his highest possessions 
can only have one thought — how is he to hack his 
way through?" This was really fighting in lust for 
another^s possessions, but according to German 
psychology, that which you want is yours if you 
have the power to take it; and when you fight to 
obtain it you are waging a war in defense of what is 



206 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

your own, although another may, at the same time, 
possess it. 

James M. Beck in The Evidence of the Case, 
comments on the fact that Germany deliberately 
violated the neutrality of Belgiimi, devastated the 
land, committed unspeakable atrocities and reveled 
in shedding the innocent blood of a courageous and 
outraged people, solely because she willed it and 
regarded it as serving her selfish, national interests ; 
he well says: "Unless our boasted civilization is the 
thinnest veneering of barbarism; unless the law of 
the world is in fact only the ethics of the rifle and the 
conscience of the cannon; unless mankind, after 
uncounted centuries, has made no real advance in 
political morality beyond that of the cave dweller, 
then this answer of Germany cannot satisfy the 
'decent respect to the opinions of mankind.' It is 
the negation of all that civilization stands for. 
Belgium has been crucified in the face of the world. 
Its innocence of any offense, until it was attacked, 
is too clear for argument. Its voluntary immola- 
tion to preserve its solemn guarantee of neutrality 
will 'plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
the deep damnation of its taking off.' " The honor 
and heroism of brave little Belgium defeated Ger- 
many's purpose of grabbing France by the throat 
by a quick march to Paris. Germany, with her 
doctrine of "Nothing succeeds like success," lost any 
chance she may have anticipated of swiftly crushing 
France before France could get ready to resist. 
Belgium gave Germany her first rude awakening in 
the long series of disillusionments she has had to 
experience since August 4th, 1914, and proved that 
the will to resist when country and honor are 
attacked is the only effective reply to a devilish will 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 207 

to power. Beck well asks, "Which blundered the 
most, the German Foreign Office or its General 
Staff, its diplomats or its generals?" 

When Germany found herself denounced by 
every civilized nation, and that her doctrine of "im- 
moralism," "scrap of paper" treaties, and "neces- 
sity knows no law," would not be accepted outside 
of Germany, the Government began to cast about 
for justification that would appeal to the more 
ethical foreign mind. Accordingly the Nord- 
deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, on October 13th and 
November 24th, 1915, published documents, seized 
by the Germans in the Belgian archives, relating to 
armed assistance by Great Britain if Belgium were 
attacked ; and at the same time the German Govern- 
ment published a Dutch edition of these documents, 
accompanied by a photograph of the text. The 
British-Belgian documents, however, merely stated 
what Britain was morally obligated to do by the 
existing treaty of neutrality, and what Britain in 
both 1870 and 1914 had told Germany and France 
she would do, i. e., protect with her armed forces, if 
necessary, the neutrality of Belgium. 

These documents, found by German agents in 
Brussels, contained the clause, "The entry of the 
British into Belgium would only take place on the 
violation of our (Belgian) neutrality by Germany." 
The photograph of the document contains this 
clause, but in the translation and as it appeared in 
the German papers, this important clause was de- 
liberately omitted, for with it the document either 
within or without the Teuton realm would be value- 
less for propaganda purposes, or for awakening 
sentiment more favorable to the act of the German 
Government. A second passage was deliberately 



208 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

altered. The photograph mentions a confidential 
"conversation;" the German Government falsified 
this to read "convention," thereby implying that a 
secret treaty was in existence between Great Britain 
and Belgimn. This a fair sample of German 
methods, German diplomacy, and the ever preva- 
lent German disrespect for truth. It is not illustra- 
tive of an unusual occurrence, but of a German 
habit of mind. It is paralleled by practically every 
act and statement of the German Government 
during the last week of July and the first few days 
of August, 1914, which led up to the great world- 
war. Karl Spitteler, the Swiss writer, has said, 
"Belgium in herself does not concern us, but he?' 
fate concerns us — the Swiss — very intimately. 
That a wrong was done to Belgium was originally 
openly confessed by the perpetrator. As an after- 
thought, in order to appear white, Cain blackened 
Abel. ... It was a spiritual blunder to rum- 
mage for documents in the pockets of the quivering 
victim. It was amply sufficient to throttle the 
victim. To calumniate her in addition is really too 
much." 

In the Reichstag on August 4th the German 
Chancellor said, "French airmen have penetrated 
Southern Germany and thrown bombs on our rail- 
way lines." Baron von Schoen, the German Am- 
bassador in Paris, said these aeroplane raids oc- 
curred at Wesel, the Eiffel country, Karlsruhe and 
Nuremberg, but no persons resident in any of these 
sections knew anything of them, and not a single 
local newspaper mentions them. The chief magis- 
trate of Nuremberg, when asked for information of 
the French raid on or near his city, boldly replied. 
"The Acting General Commandment of the 3rd 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 209 

Bavarian Army Corps in this city has no informa- 
tion that bombs were ever thrown by enemy aero- 
planes upon the railway lines in Nuremberg-Kis- 
singen or Nuremberg-Anspach, either before or 
after the outbreak of war. All such assertions and 
newspaper reports" (printed elsewhere and in- 
spired by the Government) "have been found to be 
false." Germany declared war against France at 
6:45 P. M. on August 3rd, 1914, but Bethmann- 
Hollweg admitted in the Reichstag that German 
soldiers had invaded France on August 2nd. While 
France kept her armed forces ten kilometers ( about 
six miles) from the frontier, in order to prevent the 
possibility of trouble, German soldiers violated 
French territory and plundered and killed. 

It is a peculiarly Prussian characteristic that the 
Government should wage an aggressive war of con- 
quest and by deliberate falsehoods. Machiavellian 
unscrupulousness and devilish deceit, brand it as a 
"war of defense." Wars, to be successful in these 
days, have to be waged with patriotic enthusiasm. 
"Wars which are not supported by popular senti- 
ment are no longer possible," hence the desired 
popular sentiment must be obtained by an official 
propaganda of lies emanating from the Emperor 
and Imperial Chancellor, and prosecuted with 
frenzied ardor by the Junkers, Jingoes, and the 
subsidized intellectuals of the school, press and 
pulpit. Again, the German Emperor has the 
power to declare war in defense of the Empire; if 
he desires to wage an aggressive war of conquest he 
must obtain the permission of the Bundesrat — the 
upper house of monarchical appointees, hence with 
the Kaiser — an absolute despot, all wars are de- 
fensive. A German democrat, driven from his 



210 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

fatherland, writes from the haven of Switzerland, 
"Never in the history of the world has a greater 
crime than this (European war) been committed. 
Never has a crime after its commission been denied 
with greater effrontery and hypocrisy." 

Russia menaced Austria, the ally of Germany, 
because Austria was trying to bully Serbia, a small 
Slav state, and Russia demanded that the Austrian- 
Serbian quarrel be settled by arbitration; before 
Austria and Russia could settle their difficulties and 
come to some definite, amicable understanding, Ger- 
many arbitrarily declared war on Russia. As 
France was an ally of Russia, France strug- 
gling for peace was said to menace Germany, 
and as Germany could better attack France 
through Belgium, Germany defended herself by 
violating the neutrality of Belgium, and by carry- 
ing a deliberately planned war of lustful aggression 
into the enemy's country, where the defences were 
known to be comparatively weak, due to the respect 
of France and Belgium for international law. 
''Menace and Defence; these, then are the Prusso- 
German watchwords of excuse. It is indeed quite 
true that even the highwayman is in a certain sense 
menaced and in a state of defense when he attacks 
a traveler and suddenly becomes aware that other 
well-armed men are hurrying to help the traveler. 
. . . In such a case the highwayman is also 
fighting a life and death struggle for his freedom 
and his existence. In this sense only was Germany 
in a state of defense. She would not, however, have 
found herself in such a position of constraint if she 
had not herself begun the attack." (J' Accuse! by 
a German.) 

Heroic Belgium, with sword in hand, courage- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 211 

oiisly defended her independence and honor against 
the superior hordes of an aggressive miHtaristic 
neighbor-nation. In answer to the German ulti- 
matum the Belgian Government said that they were 
"firmly resolved to repel, by all the means in their 
power, every attack upon their rights." Belgium 
made good her proud and courageous words; she 
stood the full force of the attack of the greatest 
military nation on earth, and what is now left of 
the brave, heroic little army still battles in defense 
of her honor and national independence. 

The invasion of Belgium is a typical Prussian 
act. Frederick the Great grabbed Silesia and 
brazenly said, "My plan is first to take possession. 
At a later stage I can always find men to prove that 
I was acting within my rights." Bismarck adopted 
the same tactics when he grabbed part of Denmark, 
and would have violated the neutrality of Belgium 
in 1870, had he not been a shrewd enough diplo- 
matist to know that the enemies he would make by 
so doing would defeat all his plans of Prussian 
domination in a larger and homogeneous German 
Empire. 

The fate of Belgium at German hands will be the 
fate of all small nations in the vicinity of the 
Teutonic Empire, unless Prusso-German mihtarism 
is crushed and the HohenzoUern-Hapsburg dynas- 
ties overthrown, i. e., their absolute power and con- 
trol of the armies wrested from them. Holland and 
Denmark are no more secure than was Belgium; 
Switzerland may at any time be invaded, if German 
militarism is permitted to run rampant; the Balkan 
states would either have to accept the domination of 
Teutonia or be absorbed into an enlarged Mittel- 
europa with every semblance of their independence 



212 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

lost ; Sweden and Norway are not secure, and even 
Italy, if she could be isolated from her present 
Alhes, would be a mark for Teuton aggression. In 
despatches which have come to light from the Rus- 
sian archives, the Czar of Russia and the German 
Emperor are shown to have arranged in 1905 a 
secret alliance aimed at Britain, which endangered 
Denmark. In case of war with Britain, Denmark 
was to be treated as Belgium has been in the present 
war. 

Bronsart von Schellendorf boldly said, "We pro- 
claim from henceforth that our Continental nation 
has a right to the sea, not only to the North Sea, 
but to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Hence 
we intend to absorb, one after another, all the 
provinces which neighbor on Germany. We will 
successively annex Denmark, Holland, Belgium, 
Northern Switzerland, then Trieste, Venice, and 
Northern France from the Sambre to the Loire. 
This program we fearlessly pronounce. It is not 
the work of a madman. The empire we found will 
be no Utopia. We have already to hand the means 
of founding it, and no coalition in the world can 
stop us." 

Prof. Ernst Hasse, of Leipzig, and at one time 
President of the Pan- German League, in Impericd- 
ismus und Kolonialpolitik (1906) says that Ger- 
many "must stretch from the North Sea and the 
Baltic through the Netherlands, taking in Luxem- 
burg and Switzerland down to the Balkan Penin- 
sula, and will include Asia Minor as far as the 
Persian Gulf. The influence of other powers must 
be eliminated from this great territory." Prof. 
Franz von Liszt, of Berlin, advocated (1914) the 
absorption of Belgium, Holland, the Scandinavian 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 213 

Kingdoms, Switzerland, the Balkans, and the 
merging of the larger Germany with Austria- 
Hungary, Turkey and Italy into one great empire 
(Mitt el-euro pa) of more than two hundred million 
people, over which Prussia and the Hohenzollerns 
would be supreme. 

Frymann, in Wenn ich der Kaiser ware (1913), 
says that "Such little states" (as Belgium, Holland, 
Denmark, etc.), "have lost their right to exist," and 
he demands their absorption by the sword. Fry- 
mann fears that the Belgians and the Dutch, if 
given an opportunity to throw in their lot with 
Britain or France, would do so in preference to 
Germany; therefore, Germany must act and 
forcibly acquire territory that would never come to 
her if left to the popular desire or choice of the 
people themselves. Fritz Bley, in 1897, wrote, 
"You cannot talk and sing about an invincible 
Watch on the Rhine as long as the Dutch and the 
Swiss do not sing the same tune." 

On the day that Germany ruthlessly violated the 
neutrality of Belgium, the Swiss Republic notified 
the governments of the belligerent nations, that she 
proposed to defend her neutrality and the inviol- 
ability of her territory by all possible means. 
Switzerland and Belgium are not very different in 
size, and both have French and German frontiers. 
Germany had elected to violate the neutrality of 
Belgium and invade France in the north. She did 
not feel that her national interests demanded the 
violation of the neutrality of Switzerland at that 
time, but she was somewhat fearful that France 
might decide to reply to a vicious wrong, by her- 
self committing a similar wrong, and invading Ger- 
many from the south through Switzerland. What 



214 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

a travesty on right and justice are the words of the 
German Government, addressed to the Swiss, 
acknowledging the declaration of the small Re- 
public's neutrality, and expressing their satisfaction 
and confidence that the confederation, "thanks to 
its strong army and the unconquerable determina- 
tion of the whole Swiss people, Avill repel any viola- 
tion of its neutrality." To that peculiar machine — 
the Prusso-German mind — Belgium committed an 
unpardonable crime in maintaining her neutrality, 
whereas Switzerland's decision was most praise- 
worthy. Belgium's action annoyed and handi- 
capped Germany, whereas Switzerland's action 
might prevent a French attack from an incon- 
venient quarter and thereby upset the plan of cam- 
paign of the General Staff. 

When the German Government deliberately and 
viciously ignored the independence of the Belgians 
and violated their neutrahty, not a voice of protest 
was heard in Germany and the people applauded 
the victories of their hordes of troops pitted against 
the brave but numerically insignificant army of 
Belgium, as if the battles were being waged between 
Trojans of similar power and prowess. The spirit 
of Pan-Germanism has permeated the German 
soul. Bernhardi who taught the doctrine of ''World 
power or downfall" said, "Keeping this idea before 
us we must prepare for war with the confident 
intention of conquering, and with the iron resolve 
to persevere in the end, come what may." The 
prime thought is "to conquer;" how the victory is 
won is of decidedly secondary importance, but 
whether the means employed he fair or foul, victory 
is demanded. When the German Government 
stoops to the most damnable methods, they are 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 215 

moral, if they prove successful, for victory atones 
for all sins. General von Moltke said, "We must 
put on one side all commonplaces as to the responsi- 
bility of the aggressor. When war has become 
necessary it is essential to carry it on in such a way 
as to place all the chances in one's favor. Success 
alone justifies war." 

Toward the end of August, 1914, a German 
General wrote in the Berlin Lokal Anzeiger, 
"Belgium is and will henceforth remain German. 
Not because we want the few millions of rabble 
living here. No, they may emigrate. But because 
we need their land, their mineral deposits, and 
especially their coast and their ports in order to get 
at the British," and Pastor Traub in the Kolnischer 
Zeitung, with the positive characteristic touch of 
the Prussian Protestant clergy said, "Whoever 
wishes to criticize this step is a traitor. The fact 
that the Imperial Chancellor has confessed our 
wrong, makes it a right." 

It is refreshing to know that in a country whose 
despotic government demanded the mental sur- 
render and subsidization of all the mtellectuals in 
the realm, that there were "the one or two" who 
refused to wear the Hohenzollern fetters. They 
were required, however, to keep quiet, or go to 
prison, or into exile. Some of the truly individual, 
human thinkers, gifted with a talent for expression, 
have delivered their message to the world from the 
hospitable neutral Republic of Switzerland. 

"A pitiable wretch is he 
Who knows the truth and yet can silent be." 

One of the greatest documents of the war is the 
diary of Dr. Wilhelm Miihlon, a former director of 



216 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Krupps. Like Goethe, Miihlon is a man first and 
a German afterwards, and his writings are confes- 
sions of a high-principled man to his own conscience, 
of the sins committed by an intellectually-perverted 
and morally-debauched Germany. Under date of 
August 5th, 1914, he wrote, "Our irruption into 
Belgium means for us a frightful moral expiation. 
We have dealt more unscrupulously even than Bis- 
marck did, and a victorious war will not reinstate 
us in the confidence of Europe or of the rest of the 
world. That reasons of strategj^ has induced the 
invasion of Belgium is, of course, clear to me. 
Admitting the justice and urgency of these reasons, 
nevertheless our whole conduct toward Belgium 
was so brutal, so tricky, so against all political com- 
mittals and obligations, so poorly prepared for by 
diplomatic means, that Belgium could not possibly 
assent without becoming contemptible for all time. 
Therefore we could not expect compliance on the 
part of Belgium; for we ought to have considered 
among the possibilities of our policy the crushing of 
Belgium, the destruction of her cities, the annihila- 
tion of her armies and even more, the oppression of 
her whole people, who would be obliged to oppose 
the invaders even though with the extremest reluct- 
ance." And again later, "We want to be victorious 
regardless of the means employed. We want to 
have peace again as soon as possible. To attain this 
end we march over dead bodies. 'Military necessity' 
is the name of the principle of 'justice' which covers 
all outrages." 

Under date of August 14th, Miihlon wrote, "Be- 
fore the news came of our entry into Belgium, the 
universal ferment had affected me, at least so far 
that I asked myself whether I ought not share, as a 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 217 

volunteer, the fortunes of our soldiery, without 
regard to my personal point of view and merely out 
of a natural impulse to be with and by those who 
fight and must suffer. But the attack on Belgium 
obliterated this feeling. Not even under com- 
pulsion would I now go along. Why have I con- 
victions if I do not remain true to them and stand 
up for them?" 

Miihlon resigned his post as a director of 
Krupps; he refused, directly or indirectly, to be 
associated with any phase of German hostilities, but 
continued for some time to be connected with the 
German Foreign Office as he struggled for Euro- 
pean harmony, and peace with international justice. 
Early in 1917, after distressing experiences in 
Roimiania, he finally determined that German 
methods were impossible, and that the Hohen- 
zoUerns, their government, lieutenants and Intel- 
lectuals were void of conscience, rational sense and 
honor. He felt that Germany was determined to 
win the war by any means, no matter how foul, that 
a German victory or German "peace by understand- 
ing" would mean "the defeat of the highest ideas 
and hopes of humanity," so he severed all connection 
with the German Government, left his country and 
took up his residence in Switzerland — self -exiled in 
the interests of truth and justice, humanity and 
democracy. 



IX. 

The Freedom of Dynastic Slaves 

SALLUST, the Roman historian (86-34 B. C), 
said that kingdoms could only be maintained 
by the means through which they were 
created. A kingdom founded by arms must be 
maintained by arms; a confederation or union of 
states by voluntary and peaceful action does not 
require force for its maintenance. A treaty of free 
peoples, expressing a voluntary pact for the good 
of all, is naturally pacific; a treaty of peace which 
recognizes a triumphant conqueror who is victorious 
solely by force of arms, is a termination of war that 
invariably carries within it a germ of further strife. 
Peace forced upon a people by the sword is merely 
an armistice. Peace on the basis of statu quo with 
the aggressor unsuccessful, is but an armed truce — 
a mere suspension of hostihties, unless the will to 
war is removed. 

Germany with Austria deliberately planned an 
attack on Russia and France. The war of ruthless 
aggression was represented to the gulhble authority- 
driven German people as a defensive or preventive 
war and a war of liberation, for only by this 
means could the necessary popular enthusiasm and 
patriotism be awakened. But the war is, neverthe- 
less, a deliberate attempt of the Prussianized Ger- 
mans to establish a hegemony on the Continent, and 
be prepared to later strike at Britain and brush her 
from their path as easily as they expected to 
ignominiously defeat France and Russia in 1914. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 219 

The German Imperial Chancellor, on December 
2nd, 1914, said, "We will persevere until we have 
the assurance that no one will again disturb our 
peace, a peace which we will care for, and one 
that will develop German character and German 
strength as a free nation." In the early days of the 
war, German official statements indicated that the 
nation was fighting for "secm*ity from attack, free 
development of her forces and unhampered atten- 
tion to her culture," and the Emperor in addressing 
the troops on the Eastern front, after five months 
of war, said, "We are fighting for a just cause, for 
freedom, for the right of our nation to exist, for a 
long future peace." But in her relations with other 
nations Germany enjoyed all these privileges in full 
measure before she wantonly plunged the world 
into war. It is ridiculous to give as war objects, 
pre-war conditions and to tell the people that they 
are fighting for what they already possess, but it 
indicates the colossal stupidity of the German 
people. For the Emperor to say, "We" (i. e., a 
dynasty with an aristocracy, and a people whom we 
govern and absolutely dominate in mind and body) 
"are fighting for our national freedom and for our 
right to exist as a nation," is positively absurd; but 
if the people who comprise the nation were to say, 
"We, the people, are fighting the dynasty and our 
oppressors and exploiters. We are fighting for a 
real Constitution, for a democracy, for freedom and 
for our right to exist and develop as free individuals 
in a land of unrestrained opportunity," then there 
would be rational sense and true wisdom in a Ger- 
man struggle for freedom. Germany has enjoyed 
external freedom to the greatest possible degree in 
her relations as a nation with the other great powers, 



220 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

but the people have never known the beauty and 
happiness of individual freedom. The dynasty and 
its satellites prate of freedom, but, as a modern Ger- 
man writer has well said, "He who imposes bondage 
in his own house cannot bring freedom to the 
world." There is no country in the world today 
that, considered politically, "is so undeveloped and 
so gagged as Prusso-German^^" 

And yet German writers of the subsidized 
Hohenzollern school, prate of freedom and pro- 
claim that a freedom that is not German is no 
freedom at all. In other words, a "freedom" that is 
not individualistic slavery, is not considered free- 
dom in a state that is ruled tyrannously by an abso- 
lute despot through his lieutenants and self-created 
government, which is responsible, not to the people 
or even to a ruling class, but to himself alone. 
Chamberlain, one of the Kaiser's favorites, has 
arrogantly said, "Germany has been for centuries 
the true and only home of freedom, worthy of 
humanity and elevating to humanity. . . . An 
un-German freedom is no freedom." 

Oskar Sclimitz has said, "German freedom is not 
a natural human right but an elevation of humanity 
above the despotism of its own personal inclina- 
tions." This is a typical, Prussian dynastic state- 
ment. In other words, freedom, popular govern- 
ment, democracy, political equality, and equality of 
opportunity are not "natural human rights;" when- 
ever men enjoy a measure of liberty or are per- 
mitted to take a lowly part in government and state 
affairs, they do so as a boon granted by the ruHng 
powers or at the express invitation of their lord and 
master. In Prusso-Germany the people have no 
rights whatsoever ; they are merely the human prop- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 221 

erty of the dynasty, which uses them as it sees fit 
for its own selfish ends. Schmitz gives us the real 
Hohenzollern touch when he says that a man's per- 
sonal inclination, i. e., his inherent longings for 
freedom, for full and free expression of his indi- 
vidualistic self, are a "despotism" from which he 
must be saved by the tyramious and absolute 
despotism of the state, i. e., the Kaiser and his ap- 
pointed government. German "freedom" is noth- 
ing but prison fetters for the human soul, and a 
prison uniform for the mind; it is slavery in its 
most blighting form, for it operates against the soul 
of the world and is diametrically opposed to real 
human and Cosmic progress. 

Karl Haeckel ( 1915 ) denounces democratic rights, 
privileges and obligations, and extols JDeutschtum 
as opposed to what he terms British liberties. 
Wilhelm II has taken delight in calling democracy 
with its constitutional government "the freedom of 
men to govern themselves badly according to their 
own desires." Prof. Blume, of Tiibigen, says that 
unfettered, i. e., non-German freedom is "the free- 
dom of individuals bought with the misery of mil- 
lions and with the blood of hirelings." In other 
words, the German Intellectuals argue that it is 
better to place all men in an institution, clothe and 
feed them, guard, nimiber, catalogue and deprive 
them of all liberty and initiative as if they were 
prison convicts or poorhouse-inmates, rather than 
let them express in freedom their individualistic 
talents in an atmosphere that encourages man's 
highest and best. Real men crave for freedom and 
opportunity without favor — only a fair field and 
absolute justice. The German system offers no 
freedom and it does not know the meaning of 



222 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

human justice. Prof. Sombart says that "the 
doctrine of comfort . . . certainly comes of 
evil. ... In Britain every vrorkman is stuck 
in the morass of comfort." Therefore, to the Ger- 
man mind, not only liberty and equality but "the 
pursuit of happiness" — man's inherent and essential 
rights according to our Declaration of Independ- 
ence — are pernicious aspirations. Every student of 
history knows that Germany is the one country of 
Europe that, during the past century, has stood 
deliberately in the path of democracy and real 
human freedom. The Hohenzollerns, thanks to 
Bismarck with his Machiavellian diplomacy and 
successful wars of conquest, have stemmed the tide 
of popular government in Germany and prevented 
the masses of the people from enjoying in that 
dynastically governed and still medieval and mili- 
taristic Teutonia, the rights and privileges of 
citizenship enjoyed by every other progressive 
European nation. 

The German Chancellor says that Germany can- 
not be crushed. Germany, as a soulless, militaristic 
machine, will probably never be crushed by external 
armed forces, but truth brought home to the people 
through military reverses may cause the disintegra- 
tion of the machine. The German people were in 
reality crushed when Bismarck fought the demo- 
cratic spirit then awakening in Prussia, and 
strengthened by "blood and iron" the tottering 
throne of the Hohenzollerns. A military defeat of 
Germany is the only hope for her people ; it is the 
only way by means of which they will be able to 
again perceive the truth and realize that their Prus- 
sian god has feet of clay. Germany's military 
nationalism can and will be jarred to its very foun- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 223 

dation; the spirit of Pan-Germanism, with its 
aggressive doctrine of "immorahsm," will be crushed 
by a people aroused from mental stupor to free 
their souls from dynastic chains of serfdom. Truth 
cannot be crushed, neither can the German people 
be crushed, when once the handicaps to free develop- 
ment and spiritual growth have been removed ; they 
will live by immutable law of life and evolution. 

It is a fundamentally dynastic belief that peace 
at home can always be obtained by means of a suc- 
cessful foreign war. Bismarck profited by the 
experience following 1813 and 1848, and by delib- 
erately-planned wars with Denmark, Austria and 
France, he made the Hohenzollern dynasty supreme 
in Germany ; but in the intoxication and exaltation 
of victorious wars, and amidst an epidemic of 
unthinking patriotism and a brain-weakening fever 
of ecstasy, the German people were themselves 
forced into bitter bondage. A conquering people 
lost their power of resistance to the selfish desires of 
their leaders, and while reveling in their conscious- 
ness of conquest and mastery, thej^ were enslaved 
by the Prussian dynasty who fought not for the 
people, but for the security and aggrandizement of 
itself and its throne. 

Petrarch of old said, "A foreign war is preferable 
to one at home." Every prince is taught this belief 
in early youth, and it is one of the first principles to 
be learned in the catechism of dynasties. The 
German author of J' Accuse! has well described 
some of the prime causes that led to the present 
deplorable world-war. "The increasing democrati- 
zation of Germany, which had already advanced so 
far as to pass a vote of no confidence in an Imperial 
Chancellor and a Prussian First Minister, and to 



224 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

extend protection to the civil powers in Alsace 
against the military authorities, the constant increase 
in the vote of the social democratic party, and of 
their representation in the Reichstag, the increasing 
industrialism of Germany which threatened more 
and more to repress the economic and the social 
importance of the territorial nobility — all these 
phenomena were an abomination to the Prussian 
Junkers" (and the leader and head of the Junkers 
— the HohenzoUern dynasty), "and had produced 
in the circles which they frequented a state of mind 
which can be expressed in the thought: 'Things 
cannot go on like this in Germany, and since an 
amelioration in the sense we desire cannot be 
achieved in peace, we must be assisted in our need 
by a lively and jolly war.' " 

In 1884, the Social Democrats of Germany polled 
550,000 votes. In 1898 the number had quadrupled 
(2,107,000) ; in 1903 it had risen to 3,011,000, and 
in 1912 it stood at 4,250,000. During a period of 
twenty-eight years, the democratic vote in Germany 
had increased eight-fold and was steadily increasing 
at a rate of about 150,000 votes per annum. This 
fact caused the Hohenzollerns and the Junkers 
much concern; it was the great internal political 
menace to the dynastj?^ and to any form of despotism. 

Bernhardi well expressed a fundamentally dynas- 
tic belief when, in Germany and the Next War 
(1912), he said, "We must not think merely of 
external foes who compel us to fight. A war may 
seem to be forced upon us — the dynasty or the gov- 
ernment — by the condition of home affairs, or by 
the pressure of the whole political situation." Wars 
will occur as long as the world is cursed with dynas- 
ties. Wars of aggression are dynastic and they are 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 225 

waged ( 1 ) to intoxicate the people with the idea of 
national power and domination over other peoples; 
to numb the people's minds by the fruits of militar- 
istic victories, and, ( 2 ) to divert their thoughts from 
internal grievances, lack of privilege and virtual 
slavery, to foes outside the realm, who, it is claimed, 
menace the fatherland and seek to subjugate and 
humihate the people. 

Bernhardi has also said that "The moral duty of 
a state" — by which he means the selfish interest of a 
dynasty — "requires that a struggle for domination 
over a foreign foe be begun while the prospects of 
success and the political circumstances are tolerably 
favorable. When . . . hostile states are weak- 
ened and hampered by affairs at home and abroad, 
and its own warlike strength shows elements of 
superiority, it is imperative to use the favorable 
circumstances to promote its own political ambi- 
tions." 

The only state that Bernhardi knows anything 
about is the German state, which is the Hohenzol- 
lern dynasty. Such a state in foreign affairs glories 
in its immorality, and it gives as free a rein to its 
unscrupulous ambitions as it has the military power 
to back up. In domestic affairs also, as the dynasty 
can only exist by keeping the people enslaved, it is 
necessary for the state to deceive them in regard to 
their true condition and direct their thoughts to the 
greatness of their nation as compared with other 
foreign peoples. "Success is necessary to gain 
influence over the masses, and this influence can 
only be obtained by continually appealing to the 
national imagination and enlisting its interest in 
great universal ideas and great national ambitions." 

In the Reichstag on November 9th, 1911, Deputy 



226 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Bebel quoted the following extracts from the 
"inspired" German press, printed under date of 
August 26th, 1911: "For the sake of Germany's 
internal conditions, a campaign on a large scale 
would serve a good purpose, even if it brought grief 
and pain to individual families" {Das Deutsche 
Armeehlatt) ; and, "The conviction prevails in wide 
circles of the population that a war would be wholly 
profitable, inasmuch as it would produce a clarifica- 
tion of our precarious political position and improve 
many political and social conditions." In the Ham- 
burger Nachrichten (June, 1910), we read, "We 
shall never improve matters at home until we have 
got into severe foreign complications, — perhaps 
even into war — and have been compelled by such 
convulsions to bring ourselves together." 

The German people are truly a subject race; 
subject not to a foreign power but to their own 
dynasty, — absolute, tyrannical, medieval, and main- 
tained by ignorance and superstition. The German 
masses are vassals and serfs, but when the more 
intelligent of them notice their fetters and begin to 
grow resentful and rebellious, the dynasty turns 
their eyes to foreign lands and tells them of the 
growing power and prestige of the Empire, and the 
booty, glory and honor that will soon be theirs. 
They listen with numbed brains and believing hearts 
to such senseless, egoistic twaddle as the following 
from the pen of Prof. Werner Sombart — dynas- 
tically-inspired, and the worst of it is that in their 
mental lethargy and stupidity they believe it : — "As 
the German eagle soars high above the beasts of the 
earth, so must the Germans feel exalted above all 
surrounding peoples, and must look down upon 
them in their bottomless depths." There is as much 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 227 

similarity between the soaring, free king of birds 
and the dynastically-enslaved German citizens as 
there is between light and darkness. The Germans 
in bondage dream of dominating the world, and the 
dream is a mental suggestion emanating from the 
dynasty ; it becomes an hallucination, — ^a soul-dead- 
ening obsession. Dr. Oppenheimer, of Dusseldorf, 
(1914) said, "A United States of Europe with 
Germany as leading state and the German Emperor 
at the head — this is my vision," and in Great-Ger- 
many and Middle Europe in 1950, we read that in 
the Great-German Confederation of. the Future 
"the Germans, being alone entitled to exercise polit- 
ical rights, to serve in the Army and Navy, and to 
acquire landed property, will recover the feeling 
they had in the Middle Ages of being a people of 
masters. They will gladly tolerate the foreigner 
living among them, to whom inferior manual serv- 
ices will be entrusted." 

Deputy Hasse (Social Democrat) said in the 
Reichstag on April 22nd, 1912, "A considerable 
number even of our artisans, our small tradesmen, 
our officials — of our middle classes, in short, — have 
been infected with this imperialistic mania. They 
have either been intoxicated by the nationalistic 
claptrap or they are suffering from the delusion 
that thej^ will share the benefits accruing from a 
policy of conquest. There is no doubt that there is 
a terrible awakening in store for them; some of 
them will soon come to see matters in their true 
light, and then they will sigh and groan on account 
of the increasing burdens." 

The German people are pathetically gullible. 
They have sacrificed their liberty to lead systema- 
tized, indexed and mechanistic prisoner lives; they 



228 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

have repudiated and definitely abandoned their 
ideals for empty promises and the hope of attaining 
materiahstic baubles. The subsidized Pan-German 
lieutenants of HohenzoUernism have done their 
devilish work thoroughly, and the results are the 
world war, the invasion of Belgium, submarine war- 
fare, violation of all international law, inhuman and 
unprecedented ruthlessness and unspeakable atroci- 
ties. The soul of a great people has been atrophied 
by the malicious, false teachings inspired by the 
selfish and inhimian ruling house of despots and its 
Junker bodyguard and satellites. 

Alfred Kerr, the German editor of the Review 
Pan, said in 1912 to Georges Bourdan, a French- 
man, "The prospect of war is entertained in Ger- 
many without emotion. The profits are calculated 
— the annihilation of France, an indemnity of war 
amounting to twenty-five billions, because it is 
remembered that last time you paid up too easily — 
and then we shall rub our hands. You smile ! That 
is because you don't know what Germany is today. 
It is a nation of shopkeepers, love of gain is its 
ruling passion; to earn money, to get rich quickly 
is its one ideal," and, again, "In France, you are 
blinded b}^ illusions. You dream, you revel in 
the luxury of himianitarian ideas. You believe in 
justice, goodness, peace, fraternity; and that is a 
very dangerous state of things. You say war, vio- 
lence and conquest are things of the past ; they are 
out of fashion and altogether played out. But we 
answer 'War is not a thing of the past, it is a thing 
of tomorrow.' " 

The statement is frequently made that Germany 
desires free and unfettered opportunity for expan- 
sion, and again it is said that Germany desires peace. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 229 

Paul de Lagarde, 1827-91, (real name Boetticher, 
and a professor at Gottingen) tells us that Germany 
must reach "from the Ems to the Danube, from 
Memel to Trieste, and to the river Bug in the East 
. . . Only such a Germany can feed herself, only 
such a Germany can defeat France and Russia 
. . . Since all the world desires peace, all the 
world must, therefore, desire such a Germany,'' and 
again, "We must create a Central Europe that ^^dll 
guarantee the peace of the entire Continent from 
the moment when it shall have driven the Russians 
from the Black Sea, and the Slavs from the South, 
and shall have conquered large tracts to the East of 
our frontiers . . . The German wave must spread 
toward the South until nothing remains of all the 
lamentable nationalities of the Imperial State of 
Austria," and the smaller independent Balkan 
nations. Europe, accordingly, can only have peace 
by ceding to Germany all the territory which she 
may from time to time desire, and any nation can 
become an Ally of Germany only at the price of 
part of its independence and voluntarily putting on 
a yoke which later will prove to be a hideous fetter 
of serfdom. 

Joseph L. Reimer, in A Pan-German Germany 
(1905) said, "The strongest Germanic state on the 
Continent must take over the hegemony ; the smaller 
ones must sacrifice as much of their independence 
. . as is necessary to the permanent insurance 
of the new and greater imperial unity . . . 
^^Tiich state will it be ? . . . It can be only the 
German Empire which is now in search of more 
territor}\" Reimer speaks of the necessity of sub- 
jugating France and the absorption "of the Ger- 
man provinces of Austria in any manner that may 



230 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

suit our purpose. The natural pressure of this new 
German Empire will be so great that the surround- 
ing states (which are coveted) will have to attach 
themselves to it, under conditions which we set." 

Dr. Friedrich Naumann, ex-Pastor and member 
of the Reichstag, wrote in 1899: — "All weakening 
of German national energy by pacifist associations 
or analogous activities, reinforces the formidably 
increasing power of those who rule today from the 
Cape to Cairo . . . No truce with Britain. Let 
our policy be a national policy. This must be the 
mainspring of our action in the Eastern question. 
This is the fundamental reason which riecessitates 
our political indifference to the snfferings of Chris- 
tians in the Turkish Empire, painful as these must 
be to our jmvate feelings. If Turkey were disin- 
tegrated today, the fragments of her Empire would 
become the sport of the great powers and we should 
be left with nothing . . . We must retard the 
catastrophe. Let Turkey have any Constitution 
she likes so long as she can keep herself afloat a while 
longer" — i. e., until Germany can dominate her 
entirely. "Bismarck taught us to make a distinc- 
tion between our foreign policj^ and our domestic 
policy. The same thing applies to the Christian 
missions. As Christians we desire the propaganda 
of faith by which we are saved; but it is not the 
task of our policy to concern itself ^vith Christian 
missions" — at least not until national advantage 
can be obtained. 

Germany was deeply concerned with "Christian 
missions" in the Chinese Boxer Uprisings, and was 
delighted to send a horde of Huns on a punitive 
expedition, with orders to make the German name 
terrible to all Chinamen, but she claimed that it was 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 231 

to her national advantage to ignore the hideous 
Armenian atrocities of the unspeakable Turk. "We 
must find out which is the greatest and morally the 
most important task, and when the choice has been 
made there can be no tergiversation. Wilhelm II 
has made his choice; he is the friend of Padisha, 
because he believes in a greater Germany . . . 
Meanwhile Germans are settling upon the shores 
of the Mediterranean. Good luck to you, my breth- 
ren. Work hard. Bestir yourselves . . . You 
hold in your hands a morsel of Germany's future 
life." Again in 1896, "Amicus Patriae," in Arme- 
nia and Crete, a Vital Question for Germany, said, 
"Germany must lay her mighty grasp upon Asia 
Minor . . . The Turk has lost his rights, not 
only from the moral but also from the strictly legal 
point of view . . . God is the judge . . . 
God never forsakes a good German.'* In the Russo- 
Japanese war, the German Kaiser proclaimed that 
Russia was "The champion of Christianity," and 
"the representative of the White Race" in the Far 
East. The record of Germany stands written in 
blood, — the champion of "Christianity" and the rep- 
resentative of European culture and civilization 
among the Turkish Mohammedans and the peoples 
which they have subjugated. 

Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, — these 
Allies of the Germans are merely used by them to 
further their Mittel-europa ambitions. The Germans 
scorn them as subject peoples while they selfishly 
and unscrupulously benefit by an alliance which is 
claimed to be a voluntary union of independent 
nations. The Berlin-Bagdad Railway was aimed at 
Britain and was a direct threat at Egypt and British 
possessions in Africa and Asia. The importance 



232 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

attached by Germany to complete domination of 
the territory through which the road passed can be 
gathered from the remark of Dr. Heinrich Fried- 
jung on February 14th, 1917: "Every day makes it 
clearer how ineradicably established is one of the 
prizes of victory won by Germany ; it consists in the 
linking up with the nearer East. The vast territory 
from Belgrade to Constantinople, Bagdad and 
beyond, can never again be torn from its political, 
military and economic connections with the Ger- 
man Empire. Whatever the fate of Poland and 
Belgium, Constantinople and Sofia are safe from 
subjection; Servia and Roumania can do us no 
further harm. And this, even Wilson, to whom so 
much of the course of things in Europe is incompre- 
hensible, will come to understand in time." 

Fried jung expressed the German viewpoint of 
the early days of 1917, but the Germans are learn- 
ing today that an alliance, such as that of the Cen- 
tral European states, is a "fair weather" combina- 
tion and can only exist as long as there are good 
prospects of victory. Bulgaria is already pulling 
away, Turkej'^ will follow, and Austria- Hungary, 
as it disintegrates, will clamor for peace. Just as 
military defeat will mean the withdrawal one by one 
of Germany's Allies, so the Kingdoms and Duchies 
within the Empire will draw away from militaristic 
Prussia in support and sympathy, and gradually 
the people will assert their independence of the 
Government. Mittel-europa cannot exist outside of 
a successful militaristic and Machiavellian dynasty, 
and all such schemes as an extended Mittel-europa, 
which form part of the great plan for world con- 
quest and dominion, will vanish when the Hohen- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 233 

zoUerns are overthrown and German egoism is suffi- 
ciently jarred by overwhelming military defeats. 

Kurt Martens said that Germany is "an arsenal 
and a madhouse," and Bernhardi's sinister phrase 
strikes the keynote of Germany's militaristic ambi- 
tion, "world-dominion or downfall." This is the 
motto of Germany today in a world that craves 
human justice, brotherhood and peace, as it was the 
motto of Lucifer in his assault upon heaven. 
"World-dominion or downfall" is the motto of evil 
everywhere and always. Schleiermacher, after the 
humiliation of Jena, wrote, "Germany will rise with 
unexpected might, worthy of her ancient heroes and 
her inborn spiritual strength." Germany has risen, 
but the spiritual might of Fichte and Schleiermacher 
has been replaced by the HohenzoUern curse, — the 
physical and brutal power of hell. Truth is cruci- 
fied, immoralism reigns, and blasphemy is rampant. 



X. 



The Social-Democrats^ Apostasy 

THE Peace Manifesto of the International- 
Socialistic-Labor Party, adopted at Basel, 
Switzerland, on November 25th, 1912, reads 
in part: 

"The great nations of Europe are constantly on 
the point of being urged against each other, while it 
is impossible to advance the slightest pretext of 
national interests in justification of these attacks 
against humanity and reason. 

"The Balkan crisis, which has already produced 
»< such a terrible tale of horror, would, if extended still 
further, constitute the gravest danger for civilization 
and for the proletariat. It would also be the greatest 
crime in history in view of the glaring contrast be- 
tween the magnitude of the catastrophe and the insig- 
nificance of the interests involved. 

"The Congress therefore notes with satisfaction 
the complete unanimity of the Socialist Party and of 
the working classes of all countries in conducting war 
against war ... A war between the three great 
leading civilized nations on account of the dispute 
about a harbor, between Serbia and Austria, would 
be an act of criminal madness . . . The govern- 
ments should not forget that in the present condition 
of Europe, and in view of the attitude of the work- 
ing classes, they cannot, without danger to them- 
selves, embark on a war ... It would be mad- 
ness if governments should fail to realize that the 
mere thought of the enormity of a world-war must in 
itself arouse the horror and the indignation of the 
working classes. The proletariat feel it as a crime • 
to shoot against each other in the interests of the 
profits of capitalists, the ambition of dynasties, and 
for the greater honor of diplomatic, secret treaties." 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 235 

It was boldly stated by German delegates at the 
Conference "that no Treaty of Alliance could obli- 
gate Germany to shed even a drop of German 
blood for the foolish and ambitious policy of certain 
Austrian cliques." If any Governments of Europe 
should refuse to hear the words of warning uttered 
by the laboring classes and should commit the inex- 
piable crime against humanity of plunging their 
people into war, then "the more terrible the Euro- 
pean war, the greater and more terrible would be 
the revolution which would ensue." This was the 
prophecy of Jaures of France, a truly brilliant man 
who was foully murdered by a fanatic at the out- 
break of the war. 

The Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir-apparent 
to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, were 
assassinated on June 28th, 1914, in Serajevo, the 
Capital of Bosnia — which with Herzegovina had 
been forcibly annexed by the Austrians on October 
7th, 1907. This foul murder was committed on 
Austrian soil by Austrian subjects — but the con- 
spirators were of Serbian origin. For some time, 
and particularly since the Balkan War, little Serbia, 
with its three and a half million people, had been a 
thorn in the side of Austria, who sought to dominate 
by oppression and persecution the eleven million 
Balkan Slavs — represented as Serbs, Croats, and 
Slovenes. Although the murderers had no connec- 
tion whatever with the Serbian Government, and 
the violent act was deeply deplored in Belgrade and 
elsewhere, Vienna found it convenient to denounce 
Serbia and arbitrarily decided to hold that people 
responsible for the crime. Austria accepted this 
incident, that had shocked the whole world, as a 
favorable opportunity to definitely assert her hatred 



236 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

and fear of the Southern Serbs and Croats, and 
exterminate as an independent nation the heroic 
Serbs who, as the strongest and most nationalized 
of the Balkan Slavs, were generally accepted as the 
leaders of the disquieting and anti- Austrian race. 

The Balkan war had damaged the prestige of 
Austria-Hungary in Eastern Europe, and Vienna 
was determined to regain her original commanding 
power. Germany was at last ready for war and 
pledged support to her Ally, and thus the stage was 
set for the long-talked-of and looked-for European 
conflict. Austria felt that she could quickly crush 
Serbia and by doing so increase her terri^^ory and 
Balkan-Mediterranean power. Austria was not 
blind to the fact that Russia might reasonably be 
expected to support her small sister-nation, but 
Germany was pledged to assist in the fight against 
Russia, while France, if she came into the conflict, 
could be easily handled by Germany. 

Austria's aspirations were at the expense of Rus- 
sia and Serbia, but Germany was not satisfied with 
probable Eastern fruits of victory. Of course, she 
expected to gain territory in Poland, West Russia, 
Finland, and the Baltic, but she was particularly 
covetous of Northern France and the Netherlands. 
It was Germany's earnest hope, however, to keep 
Britain at least neutral, for she was not yet ready or 
in a position to wage war with the world's great 
maritime power, but with equal earnestness and per- 
sistence she sought for war with France and Russia. 

Austria was given a free hand by her dominant 
German Ally in the handling of the Serbian matter, 
and she despatched a note to Serbia which, all 
authorities agree, violated every precedent and sur- 
passed the limits of what, under the circumstances. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 237 

was permissible in the communications between 
independent nations; it is equally agreed that the 
Serbian reply surpassed in its spirit of compliance 
and submissiveness to impudent and unwarranted 
demands, everything of which there was any previ- 
ous record. Yet the Serbian answer, actuated by a 
strong desire for peace, and which must have been 
most humiliating to the senders, was declared unsat- 
isfactory by Austria, and war was declared. Austria 
mobilized against Serbia and Russia, and Russia 
mobilized in self-protection, while she struggled for 
peace and urged a conference of the Great Powers, 
or the settlement of any misunderstanding by arbi- 
tration. Germany demanded of Russia that she 
demobilize, without requiring that her Ally — Aus- 
tria — cease her military preparation, and then 
immediately followed her absurd request by a decla- 
ration of war against Russia, soon to be followed by 
a declaration of war against innocent France, and 
prompt violation of the neutrality of Belgium. 

Here we have a clear instance of a deliberately 
planned war of aggression, the ostensible cause orig- 
inating in the Balkans, and between the same two 
countries, Serbia and Austria, which the Interna- 
tional Labor Party had definitely cited less than two 
years before: — "A war between the . . . great 
civilized nations on account of disputes . . . 
between Serbia and Austria would be an act of mad- 
ness . . . The mere thought . . . must 
. . . arouse the horror and indignation of the 
working classes." 

When the Hohenzollern and Hapsburg dynasties 
decided on war, what did the International Labor 
Party, the Socialists, and the "Democrats" of Ger- 
many do ? These are the very same men, who, in the 



238 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

days of peace, had fought against miHtarism and 
denounced war. Their denunciation of brute force 
and Prussianism had been very bitter, apparently 
earnest and uttered with human conviction. The 
Social Democrats had often stated the truth and 
presented the case against a despotic government 
as clearly and decisively as it has since been stated 
by the outside world, but when war was declared by 
Germany against their brothers in France and Rus- 
sia, they quickly changed front. Their representa- 
tives in the German Reichstag, on August 4th, 
1914, voted in favor of the various war measures 
proposed by the despotic Prussian dynasty and its 
vassal ministry, and they enthusiastically and blindly 
passed, without debate, measures for "defense" of 
the fatherland, including an appropriation of five 
billion marks to kill their "international" brothers, 
and this after hearing the Imperial Chancellor say, 
"Necessity knows no law; at this moment our troops 
are in Belgium." 

No class internationalization will ever put a stop 
to war; it requires a broader and deeper scope of 
interest, — the brotherhood of humanity, not of 
classes. All amalgamations of class breed class 
consciousness and result in the deification of class 
interest and the development of class intolerance. 
Class loyalty can never compete with national loy- 
alty, notwithstanding all its boasts and protestations 
of internationalism. The only loyalty in the world 
which is superior to loyalty to country is that uni- 
versal loyalty to humanity which is an expression of 
true religion, and which acknowledges in the spirit 
of Christ "The Brotherhood of Manand the Father- 
hood of God." In the true religion of loyalty, there 
is no proletariat and no class, — only men ; states and 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 239 

countries may justly demand loyalty — for universal 
loyalty is not the negation of patriotism, it is rather 
its purifier and intensifier, — but all nations must be 
loyal to the greater whole, just as the cities and 
families which form a real and homogeneous nation 
are loyal to their country which represents a united 
interest of distinctive individuals with generally 
similar or somewhat kindred characteristics and 
aspirations. 

Much had been expected of the Social Democrats, 
Internationals and Socialists of Germany, in the 
interest of peace and anti-militarism, but in the 
emergency they failed, and the Reichstag stood 
solidly for war behind the Hohenzollern dynasty. 
It is true that the Government lied and maliciously 
fabricated reports of the aggression of neighbor- 
nations, but these so recent loud-voiced advocates of 
peace were surely not without perception and intui- 
tion; it must be that they were lacking in courage. 
Knowing the history of the Hohenzollerns and their 
Ministers, the aspirations of the Pan- Germans and 
the militarists, the Prusso-Germans accepted doc- 
trine of "Immoralism" and conquest by force, know- 
ing in a measure the preparation of Germany for 
war, the German refusal to make peace treaties and 
submit their national differences to arbitration, and 
knowing the determination of the Government to 
plunge the State into a war for world domination, 
when they were ready, — yet with these facts well in 
view, the Social Democrats, Internationals and 
Sociahsts, with unparalleled gullibility or moral 
cowardice, passed war measures which virtually 
meant the unanimous endorsement of the Hohen- 
zollern policy of world conquest and of their decla- 
ration of aggressive war. 



240 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

In December, 1913, Lieutenant von Forstner 
insulted, abused and humiliated the Alsatians at 
Zabern — the old French Savergne. Col. von Renter 
supported his Lieutenant, and in the excitement 
that followed dispersed the people by means of the 
soldiery, armed with bayonets and loaded rifles, and 
placed machine guns in the streets. The Judge and 
Council of the Civil Court were arrested as they 
were leaving the Courthouse, and twenty-seven of 
them spent the night in the cellar jail of the bar- 
racks. Men were arrested for laughing at the 
troops, and the official Annual Register admits "the 
wounding by Lieutenant von Forstner of a lame cob- 
bler who . . . was alleged to have insulted him 
by contemptuous cries, although the Burgomaster 
asserted it was only some children who had jeered." 
Judicial proceedings followed in which it was proved 
that "when warned that his unprovoked incitement 
of the population was likely to lead to bloodshed," 
Col. von Renter replied, "bloodshed would be a good 
thing," and admitted that civilians had been arrested 
for "intending to laugh." The Colonel was finally 
acquitted on the ground that "he did not know that 
he had acted illegally." He himself based his action 
on a Prussian Cabinet order of 1820. 

During the trial, the Crown Prince telegraphed 
Col. von Renter, exhorting him to "stick to it." Gen. 
von Falkenhayn, the Minister of War, in the Reich- 
stag, defended the military and attacked the perni- 
cious press, and Dr. Jagow, the Police President of 
Berlin, expressed the opinion of the Government, 
i. e., the dynasty, when he said that "Military exer- 
cises are acts of sovereignty, and if obstacles are 
placed in the way of their performance, the obstacle 
must be removed in the execution of this act of 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 241 

sovereignty." Official Germany, therefore, decreed 
that "mihtary exercises," such as the running of 
lame cobblers through the body by a Lieutenant, 
and his shopping with an escort of soldiers, armed 
and with fixed bayonets, are "acts of sovereignty." 
Lieutenant von Forstner was given a mild sentence, 
but this was quashed by a higher military court; 
Col. von Renter became a hero in the eyes of the 
military, and imperial approval is evidenced by 
the fact that a few months after the incident he 
was decorated with a Prussian Order. It is in- 
teresting to recall the words of Prof. Mommsen, 
the German historian, who cautioned the nation to 
take heed "lest in this state, which has been at 
once a power in arms and a power in intelligence, 
the intelligence should vanish and nothing but the 
pure military state remain." 

The ray of light and hope in the darkness of the 
Zabern incident came from the Reichstag, when the 
democratic spirits protested vigorously against the 
arrogance and predominance of the military. The 
discussion brought forth a storm of bitter denuncia- 
tions, and the Reichstag actually passed, by a vote 
of 293 to 54, a resolution declaring that it was dis- 
satisfied with the Imperial Chancellor's explanation 
of the occurrence and his unsatisfactory defense of 
the conduct of the garrison. As the Chancellor is 
not responsible to the people, and as his conduct well 
pleased his royal master, the protest was ineffectual, 
but the incident gave promise of an increasing dis- 
satisfaction among the more democratic people with 
the overbearing domination of the military. 

Another fact which has been generally construed 
to indicate a pronounced growth of peaceful demo- 
cratic sentiment in Germany, was the result of the 



242 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Reichstag election in December, 1911, when the 
number of Social democratic members seated, rose 
from 43 to 110, and caused the Chancellor so much 
concern that in his opening address to the new 
Reichstag, he remarked that the oldest Parliamen- 
tarian among them had never before stood face to 
face with a political situation so uncertain. 

It is interesting to note, however, that the elec- 
tions of December, 1911, followed immediately after 
the European crisis, which was brought about by 
the visit of the German gunboat Panther to Agadir 
on July 1st. This move was ostensibly "to help and 
protect German subjects and clients in those 
regions," but in reality it was an act of aggression 
on the part of Germany in the foreign field — "a 
ratthng of the sabre," and an intimation to France 
that Germany was determined to have something to 
say about Morocco, then in a state of revolution. 
Germany must demand compensation somehow and 
somewhere before she would acquiesce in the annex- 
ation of Morocco by France and Spain, which coun- 
tries had been given the right by a Congress of 
Nations in 1906 — because of their pronounced inter- 
ests in Morocco, — to supervise that territory, and to 
intervene in case of internal disorder. 

Germany had absolutely no economic interest in 
Morocco, but in 1905 she gave the first instance of 
mailed fist diplomacy seen in Europe for many 
years, when, following the Kaiser's visit to Tangier, 
she sent a peremptory ultimatum to France, at a 
time when Russia (France's Ally) was powerless to 
stand by her because of her disastrous war with 
Japan. 

Germany's demand of France was intended to 
isolate her by causing her, in terror of German arms. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 243 

to break off relations with Britain; and thus Ger- 
many — herself protected by the Triple Alliance, — 
would have split up the Triple Entente, which was a 
mere defensive alliance aimed at defending France 
and Russia, if necessary, against Teutonic aggres- 
sion. Germany's threat of war with France, how- 
ever, instead of weakening the Franco-British un- 
derstanding, deeply strengthened it. Britain defin- 
itely supported France, and affairs in regard to 
Morocco were finally presented to an International 
Conference in which the United States took part at 
Algeciras in 1906. The Conference ended in a tacit 
defeat for Germany, as all the members, excepting 
Austria and including the American representative, 
decided against the absurd claims put forth by Ger- 
many. 

The same day that the Panther was sent to 
Agadir, the German Ambassador in London noti- 
fied the British Government that, notwithstanding 
the decision of the Great Powers at Algeciras, they 
were determined to reopen the Moroccan question 
with France and Spain, and demand a solution 
which would be more satisfactory to Germany. Sir 
Edward Grey replied that Britain had treaty obli- 
gations with France about Morocco and interests of 
her own there, so that she could not be indifferent 
to the course of such negotiations as were contem- 
plated by German)^ The real question in the diplo- 
matic exchange of views between Berlin and Paris 
soon came to hght. Germany used Morocco merely 
as an excuse, but the real point was whether France 
would accept humiliating terms imposed upon her 
by the threat of the German sword, or whether the 
Triple Entente was sufficiently firm and united to 



244 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

resist the attempted blackmail even at the risk of 
war? 

On July 21st, 1911, Sir Edward Grey picked up 
the gauntlet thrown at Britain's feet, protested 
against Germany's bludgeoning methods, and noti- 
fied Germany that Britain was for peace, but she 
would not stand idly by and see France browbeaten 
and humiliated. Lloyd George delivered a memor- 
able address at the Mansion House the same daj^ in 
which he said that the peace of Europe, under the 
conditions imposed on peace-loving peoples by Ger- 
many, would be at a price of humiliation and aban- 
donment of honor, — both intolerable and unthink- 
able to a great and free people. The German Gov- 
ernment protested vigorously against George's 
speech, but Britain had made her position clear. 
After a War Council at Potsdam, at which it was 
decided that Germany was not yet ready for war, 
Germany made some "friendly" explanations about 
her attitude being misunderstood, and France and 
Germany negotiated an agreement dated November 
4th, 1911, whereby Germany acquiesced in the occu- 
pation of Morocco by Spain and France, and 
obtained a slice of the French Congo by way of 
compensation. 

The Agadir crisis produced a deep impression in 
Germany. The Government had issued a challenge 
to France and England, and had withdrawn when it 
was seen that the challenge had not intimidated the 
Entente, as thej had hoped it would. The nation 
considered that they had been subjected to an intol- 
erable humiliation, and it was urged that the whole 
theory of force and power by physical might, which 
underlay the Prussian domination of Germany, and 
which it had been firmly expected, would result in 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 245 

the conquest of Europe by Germany, — and later 
their domination of the world, — was not working 
out in practice. What was the use of tremendous 
expenditures on armaments and the maintenance of 
large armed forces, if Germany by such means was 
not to reach her goal of world-domination? The 
people talked of the great Navy Laws of 1898, 1900, 
1906 and 1908; the apparent successes won under 
threat of war against France in 1905, and against 
Russia in 1909, they saw, in 1911, had united nations 
in a tacit understanding against them, with the 
object of resisting in common the tyrannous domi- 
nation of Germany. 

The fatherland, with her tremendous army and 
immeasurable national conceit, had for the first time 
been forced to beat a retreat, and the German peo- 
ple were outraged and humiliated, not at their Gov- 
ernment's unjust attitude in relation to foreign 
powers, but at their failure to obtain by threats and 
force all they wanted and set out to acquire, whether 
the means employed were fair or foul. The Social 
Democrats argued that they had always predicted 
that the poHcy of the Government would end disas- 
trously. It was freely stated that the Government, 
having backed down to France and Britain, was 
grossly incompetent and cowardly, and that the 
official policy did not offer the prospects hoped for 
and persistently promised, viz., that Germany would 
rise in ascendency over all other peoples until by 
her might and kultur she conquered the world and 
subjugated all nations. 

The elections took place in December, 1911, 
and primarily because of the people's disgust with 
the Government for not successfully applying the 
Prussian mailed fist policy, and not because of a love 



246 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

for peace, the number of Social democratic members 
returned to the Reichstag rose from 43 to 110. This 
is a most significant fact, for it indicates that in 
defeat Germans are anti-dynastic, while in victory 
they are pro-dynastic. In other words, the election 
of December, 1911, indicated that the German peo- 
ple are only willing to spend their money on armies, 
navies and armaments if they are to be used to 
acquire territory, power and wealth for Germany. 
The moral phase is ignored ; the utilitarian and the 
materialistic are all-important. With these facts in 
mind, it is surprising that the much-talking, vision- 
ary and "idealistic" Social Democrats, Internation- 
als and Socialists of Germany, who talked at the 
International Labor Party Congress at Basel in 
November, 1912, of international brotherhood, and 
prated of justice and the horrors of war, the ambi- 
tions of dynasties, and the evils of secret diplomacy, 
should, on August 4th, 1914, when they were told 
and felt that at last Germany was ready for war, 
enthusiastically and unanimously support the Gov- 
ernment in its devilish action which plunged the 
whole world into war? 

There is no doubt that many of the Social Demo- 
crats of Germany are sincere, peace-loving, humane 
men, but they were deceived and intimidated. Others 
were "economic-democrats," who considered that the 
curse of the army lay in its expense and resultant 
taxation. Others were "class-democrats" who took 
what they believed to be the side of the proletariat 
without regard to sense or justice, and the surging 
psychological suggestion of patriotism and defense 
of the fatherland quickly brought them into line. 

When war measures were put into effect in Ger- 
many, all semblance of freedom was abruptly termi- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 247 

nated ; since that time all that Germany knows has 
emanated from the dynastically-controlled Govern- 
ment. When the Reichstag assembled August 4th, 
1914, Germany had been at war four days, and for 
four days official lies, systematically circulated among 
the people, had been the only "news" given to them 
of international happenings; therefore, only brave 
men could have protested in the Reichstag against 
the policy and actions of the Government, and they 
were not there. Under the conditions existing in 
Germany, the Democrats and anti-mihtaristic 
patriots of other lands would have been encouraged 
in their stand and battle for ideals and universal 
justice and freedom, if the Social Democrats in the 
Reichstag had declined to vote war measures and 
had gone on record by some form of protest; but 
the Prussian dynasty was in the saddle, and the Ger- 
mans — Social Democrats and all — stumbled over 
each other in their frenzied hurry to prove their loy- 
alty to the Government in power. 

Why should the Social-Democrats of Germany 
be loyal to the dynasty and the Imperial militaristic 
Government ? Bismarck attempted to destroy them 
by force. He prohibited their organizations and 
newspapers, and forbade meetings of members ; he 
even proposed that any German convicted of hold- 
ing such views should be deprived of the franchise 
and excluded from the Reichstag. The Kaiser has 
said, "For me every Social Democrat is an enemy 
of the Empire and the fatherland." They have 
never been enemies of the state, but it was always 
supposed that they were vigorous but lawful enemies 
of the Prussian militarism and the Prussian-Hohen- 
zollern conception of the state. Prince von Biilow, 
in Imperial Germany^ said, "The Social democratic 



248 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

movement is the antithesis of the Prussian state 
. . . for decades it has combated the monarch- 
ical and mihtary foundations of the Prussian state 
. . . It is the duty of every German ministry to 
combat this movement until it is defeated or ma- 
terially changed." 

Prince von Biilow also writes that the true remedy 
against Social democracy in Germany is a vigorous 
national policy. If every other means fails, an 
appeal to the deeply ingrained and carefully fos- 
tered patriotic sentiment must be bugled forth. 
"Nothing has a more discouraging, paralyzing and 
depressing effect on a . . . nation, such as the 
German, than a monotonous, dull policy, which, for 
fear of an ensuing fight, avoids arousing passions by 
a strong action." The increase in the number of 
Social Democrat seats in the Reichstag, which rose 
from 43 to 110 in the election of December, 1911, 
we have proven was due to the failure of the Hohen- 
zollern mailed-fist policy abroad, and to national 
disgust with governmental increase of physical 
power and lack of initiative and courage in using it. 
The election of 1907 demonstrated the same national 
feeling. In 1903, the Social Democrats had won 80 
seats, and in 1907, Prince von Biilow considered the 
rapidly increasing power of the Democrats such a 
menace to the dynasty that he determined (or was 
ordered) to cripple them. He put into effect his 
advocated policy of making the black eagle of Ger- 
many scream, arouse all to a sense of fervid nation- 
alism and, by diverting their thoughts from domestic 
to foreign affairs, build up loyalty to the militaristic 
and imperialistic dynasty. 

Prince von Biilow dissolved the Reichstag and 
made a tremendous appeal to national sentiment 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 249 

and the patriotism of the masses. In the campaign, 
the Social Democrats condemned Pan-Germanism, 
with its large armies, extravagant naval schemes 
and ambitious policy of world-domination, and reit- 
erated their demands for real democratic and repre- 
sentative government. The official organs and the 
disciples of the dynasty and of Prussianism stated 
that the issue was "whether or not Germany is to 
develop from a European into a world-power?" 
The intellectual and political lieutenants of Hohen- 
zollernism shouted that "the State is in danger," and 
urged the Germans to rally at the polls in defense 
of the fatherland. The result was as Prince von 
Billow had foretold, and the Social Democrats lost 
almost half their seats in the Reichstag, the number 
dropping from 81 to 43. After the election the 
Chancellor remarked, "The whole world will see 
that Germany sits firmly in the saddle and will ride 
down everything which places itself in the way of 
its growth and greatness." 

The Social Democrats of Germanj^ have always 
posed as being unalterably opposed to imperialism, 
militarism and war. They have shouted forth their 
denunciation of annexation, and have protested 
against any war aims that would make the "de- 
fensive" war of Germany a war of conquest. In 
1917, the German Government organized a "peace 
offensive," and the Imperial Chancellor announced, 
"We shall not continue this war one day longer to 
make conquest if we can make peace with honor," 
and again he affirmed that "Germany was weary of 
proposing an honorable peace to an unreasonable 
world." This was a fine opening for the Social 
Democrats, and Philip Scheidemann, the leader of 
the majority socialists, posing as a bitter enemy of 



250 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the dynasty and of militaristic Pan-Germans, and a 
lover not only of his fellow countrymen but of all 
mankind, in concert with Matthias Erzberger, the 
centrist, put through the Reichstag, in the name of 
the German people, an infamously dishonest resolu- 
tion which declared for peace without annexations 
and indemnities, and said that "economic and 
financial violations are incompatible with such a 
peace." The German Government sat back and 
enjoyed its cruel joke. The Reichstag is a mere 
irresponsible debating society, and it has absolutely 
no power in declaring war or negotiating peace ; its 
views are unimportant in the ej'^es of the dynasty, 
and the Government is absolutely dynastic. Beth- 
mann-Hollweg announced in the Reichstag, in 
1910, that the Prussian Constitution "did not recog- 
nize the sovereignty of the people." He could have 
gone further and said that the dynasty and its ap- 
pointed lieutenants, which form the Government, 
do not recognize the wishes of the people. With 
Prussianism, moral right or human justice has no 
influence whatever — only force, and as long as the 
dynasty controls the army, it feels that it is safe to 
ignore the desires or even the demands of the 
people. 

This Scheidemann-Erzberger peace formula be- 
guiled the war weariness of Russia. It was enthusi- 
astically adopted there by the Council of Workmen 
and Soldiers. It became the pretext for a demand 
that the Allies recast their war aims. It inspired 
the dangerous Stockholm conference, at which a 
German peace was to have been prepared by the 
International Labor Party and Socialists from all 
countries. Finally the Scheidemann-Erzberger 
formula, intensively employed as propaganda, de- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 251 

livered Russia into the hands of the arch-traitors, 
Lenine and Trotzky, who betrayed their country 
and fellow countrymen for so many pieces of Ger- 
man silver. These fiends, in the pay of the un- 
scrupulous German Government, carried the peace 
formula in their hands to Brest-Litovsk and there 
sold Russia into bondage and utter hopelessness, pre- 
tending to rely upon the Scheidemann-Erzberger 
declaration against "annexations and indemnities." 

The Scheidemann-Erzberger peace resolution 
passed by the Reichstag — which is not a representa- 
tive or legislative body — did more in the interest of 
Germany in a few weeks, than all their armed forces 
had accomplished in three years. The decoy Bol- 
shevist, who led war-weary and ignorant Russia 
down to Brest-Litovsk and put the neck of 
Roumania in the HohenzoUern noose, is Phihp 
Scheidemann, who again cries as his royal master 
looks for further prey, "The German people ask for 
peace — peace with honor. There is only one cry in 
the land — end the war with honor;" — the same 
honor that proffered peace "without annexations 
and indemnities" to a Russia in arms, and when that 
country's military forces were disorganized because 
of the treacherous poison, and they had thrown 
down their arms, Germany grabbed all the terri- 
tory to which she aspired and also demanded in 
addition a large indemnity; and so Russia was 
prostrated by the deadly poison, administered by 
the Social Democrat, Scheidemann, and his kind in 
the "international" spirit of peace and brotherhood. 

President Wilson, in his 1917 Flag Day address 
and a month before Scheidemann put the peace 
resolution through the Reichstag, characterized the 



252 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

methods of German peace intrigue and definitely 
forecast the consequences in these words : 

"Do you now understand the new intrigue, the in- 
trigue for peace, and why the masters of Germany do 
not hesitate to use any agency that promises to effect 
their purpose — the deceit of the nations ? Their pres- 
ent particular aim is to deceive all those who through- 
out the world stand for the rights of peoples . . . 
for they see what immense strength the forces of 
justice and of liberalism are gathering out of this 
war. . . . They are using men, in Germany and 
without, as their spokesmen, whom they have hitherto 
despised and oppressed, using them for their own 
destruction — Socialists, the leaders of labor, the 
thinkers they have hitherto sought to silence. Let 
them once succeed, and these men, now their tools, 
will be ground to powder beneath the weight of the 
great military empire they will have set up ; the revo- 
lutionists in Russia will be cut off from all succor or 
cooperation in Western Europe and a counter-revolu- 
tion fostered and supported; Germany herself will 
lose her chance of freedom." 

Before the Brest-Litovsk international outrage, 
with its crucifixion of what was left of German 
honor, the Social Democrats expressed themselves 
as opposed to the annexation of foreign territory. 
The minority still claim to support this view, but 
the Scheidemann "majority" sections have acted as 
if they are really in favor of any plan that will dis- 
rupt and disorganize their enemies ; and strong sup- 
port has even been given to the anti-Russian move- 
ment which preaches that the salvation of Germany 
is to be found in promoting and encouraging the 
break-up of Russia, and in helping to establish new 
separate states — Polish, Finnish, Ukrainian, etc., 
dependent upon German support against Russia 
and therefore under German influence. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 253 

Much of the democratic spirit of Germany was 
bartered away at Brest-Litovsk in exchange for 
German control of certain Eastern provinces, and 
Pan-Germanism triumphed by treachery, not only 
over the Russian but over German honor and Ger- 
man freedom. 

Dr. PaulLensch, a Socialist and ardent supporter 
of the Reichstag "Peace Resolution," writes in Die 
Glocke (October 6th, 1917) : "Germany will have 
won the war if she does not lose it, whereas Britain 
and her Allies will have lost the war if they do not 
win it. . . . The gentlemen in the Fatherland 
Party (Pan-German) are too impatient and want 
to get everything in a trice. But this is a case where 
the Biblical phrase applies 'Seek ye first the King- 
dom of God and His righteousness and all these 
things shall be added unto you.' First bring about 
the peace by understanding which guarantees Ger- 
many's political independence, territorial integrity 
and freedom of economical development, then 
Germany will have shown herself so strong that 
'all these things' (i. e., the forces that make a 
predominant world-power) shall be added unto 
her. The regeneration of Europe, which must 
take place after the war, will automatically 
create its position for the great central nation 
of Europe, which has surmounted the ordeal of war. 
But that position is endangered the longer now that 
this war is drawn out. It may be to the interest 
of our enemies to go on with the war. 
Just think what a peace by understanding would 
mean for France — 'for Italy ! For both countries it 
would mean absolute ruin. . . . For Germany 
alone and its Allies it would mean a triumph." 

Dr. Lensch is the chief apostle of the new school 



254 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

of Neo-Marxism in Germany, which is in reality a 
remarkable reaction affecting rapidly increasing 
numbers of German Socialists, whereby Karl 
Marx's principles are so modified by Prussianism 
that they are practically abandoned in favor of what 
is virtually Pan-Germanism. The attempt to 
reconcile Socialism with Pan-Germanism is built 
upon the theory that the only factors in the world 
that really matter are economic. Renner, an Austro- 
German Socialist, in his latest work, Marccism, War 
and Internationale, denounces the "moral judgment 
point of view" and regards war as the completion 
of historical and especially economic processes. "It 
is not impossible that in the future also, the world 
will find order through warlike selection — that the 
power which proves itself to be the strongest organi- 
zation is also summoned by history to perform the 
greatest work of organization, and to be by right 
the highest power, the judge, administrator and 
lawgiver of the peoples." 

The Socialists of Germany are as great a menace 
to the world as are the Bolsheviki, but where are the 
real democrats of Germany? Many of them are 
exiles in Switzerland; others are submerged await- 
ing the time when military disaster will break their 
fetters, and, in a land of liberty, they will be able to 
live as free men. 

A once important personage in German in- 
dustrialism has said : 

"Place absolutely no hope in any party or any 
class within Germany. There is no considerable class 
within Germany which understands democracy. All 
criticism of the Government is based entirely on the 
fact that there is not enough food and clothing. But . 
if the German Government can provide her people 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 255 

with the necessities of life as she has in the past, 
there is no reason why she should not make war for 
fifty years. . . , The number of people in Ger- 
many that respects anything but force is utterly 
negligible. For twenty years I have wished to join a 
democratic party in Germany and work toward dis- 
armament, but there was no such party for me to join. 
I would have joined even the smallest group. But 
there was no group which had the courage to 
organize. Upon the masses of Germany, capitalists, 
professionals and wage-workers alike, economic suc- 
cess and the new wealth have worked like a black 
curse. The acquisition of wealth merely, destroyed 
the soul of Germany." 

There is no doubt among the democratic exiles 
in Switzerland that Germany has lost her soul, or 
rather sold or gambled it away for power and 
wealth, and only German disaster can bring even 
the dawn of real German democracy. It is the 
Faust legend made into history by Goethe's fellow 
countrymen, although it is a Potsdam Germany and 
not Goethe's Weimar Germany that has sold its 
soul. A modern writer has well described the con- 
ditions that have resulted in Germany's spiritual 
downfall : 

"Forty years of enormous industrial, commercial 
and financial expansion under protection; the great 
cartels, the great fortunes. Princes competing or com- 
bining with bankers and industrialists ; colonies, fleets, 
armies, the merchant marine, all stimulating one an- 
other in a vicious circle; trade crying for markets, 
commerce arm-in-arm with militarism; Chauvinism 
in the universities and the schools ; the Socialists 
gradually turned into commercial imperialists; the 
megalomania of the Kaiser shared in the measure of 
his capacity by the meanest German, happy to think 
he belongs to a superior race, and devoutly hoping 
for a better chance in a greater Germany ; a nation of 



256 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

regimented materialists, worshippers of wealth, be-* 
lievers in the infallibility of force, incapable of politi- 
cal thought; that is Germany." 

What a change Prussia with its Hohenzollern 
dynasty bolstered up and made absolute and terrible 
by Bismarck, the man of blood, iron and treachery, 
has wrought throughout Germany, once a land of 
imagination, art, romance and dreams. Germany 
has given the world but little in the realm of 
political science, but the work of her composers and 
poets will live forever : Schubert, Schumann, Weber, 
Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Schil- 
ler, Heine, Goethe, etc., etc. Voltaire once said 
that France ruled the land, England the seas, but 
Germany ruled the clouds. When Napoleon first 
overran Germany, he met with but little military 
opposition. Goethe was indifferent to the violent 
political upheavals of the period, whereas Beethoven 
was moved rather by the abstract ideas evolved in 
revolutionary France, than by German nationahsm 
and patriotism. The ideal of Germany a century 
ago was art and culture, not brute force, barbaric 
destruction and kultur. The great minds of Ger- 
many objected like Archimedes of old to military 
interference, for like the scientific genius of ancient 
Greece, they, too, were engaged in the solving of 
great world-moving problems or in expressing 
Cosmic truths to a hungry, needy world. The Ger- 
man vital forces of a century ago were expressed by 
Kant's philosophy, Beethoven's music and Goethe's 
writings, but Prussianism with its political efficiency, 
military power and despotism in every field of 
human endeavor, has enfettered and warped the 
minds and Satanized the ideals of a great people. 

In The Evolution of Modern Germany we read. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 257 

"One is often overcome with longing as one thinks 
of the German of a hundred years ago. He was 
poor, impotent, despised, ridiculed and defrauded. 
He was the uncomplaining slave of others ; his fields 
were their battle-ground, and the goods which he in- 
herited from his father were trodden under foot and 
dispersed. He never troubled when the riches of the 
outside world were divided without regard for him 
. . . but his heart was full of sweet dreams and 
uplifted to rapture by the chords of Beethoven. He 
wept with Werther and Jean Paul in joyous pain, 
he smiled with the childish innocence of his naive 
poets, the happiness of his longing consumed him 
and as he listened to Schubert's song, his soul 
became one with the soul of the universe." 

Prussian militarism and despotism, with their 
tyrannous and barbaric brutal power, and their 
domination of soul, mind and body, are the opposite 
extremes of the idyllic picture of the culture of the 
small and weak German states, politically jealous 
and fearful of each other. What Germany needed 
was the application, politically, of Aristotle's "Doc- 
trine of the Mean;" the ultimate happiness and 
prosperity of a worthy people demanded a strong 
political organization and a voluntary amalgama- 
tion of small independent states into one national 
body, which would be ruled, not by an enslaving 
dynasty, but by the people themselves. Petty 
weakness sapped the German soul of its strength, 
and from the Mark of Brandenburg came the 
arrogant Aryan spirit of conquest and power 
through might, unscrupulous aggression and decep- 
tion, that not only dominated but subjugated a 
people. Through victories at arms over neighbor- 
ing peoples, and the national prosperity which 



258 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ensued, the enslaved German people — because of 
economic success and the abundant satisfaction 
of their material needs — became in their mental 
lethargy even happy and content with an existence 
of nothing but soul-deadening serfdom. 

In the Round Table it has been well said, "Prus- 
sia's state-kultur is too violent a reaction from those 
(early nineteenth century) ineffectual times, too 
utter a denial of the aims and principles which 
animate the great progressive nations of the world, 
to succeed and endure ; and perhaps if its power can 
be broken by the ordeal which it has now invoked, 
then will emerge from the storm, a German State in 
which the idealism of the past will resimie its broken 
sway and arrest the prostitution of German minds 
to dreams of material domination by the ruthless 
cult of war." 

At the Inter- Allied Labor and Socialist Confer- 
ence held in London, February 23rd, 1918, British 
labor outlined war-aims which sought to obtain "a 
clean peace." It is refreshing to find in these war- 
aims of British, French, Italian and Belgian labor, 
the absolutely essential thing for which Allied 
ideahsts are fighting: "Of all the war-aims none 
is so important to the people of the world as that 
there should be henceforth on earth no more warf 
i. e., no wars of aggression waged by civilized 
nations. The memorandum goes boldly to the root 
of the matter and relies upon the formation of a 
League of Nations as the means necessary to pre- 
vent war, based on: "The complete democratization 
of all countries, the removal of all the arbitrary 
Powers who, until now, have assumed the right of 
choosing between peace and war; the maintenance 
or creation of legislatures, elected by and on behalf 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 259 

of the sovereign right of the people, the suppres- 
sion of secret diplomacy, to be replaced by the con- 
duct of foreign policy under the control of popular 
legislatures." Disarmament is the test and touch- 
stone of an honest peace. "The League of Nations 
in order to prepare for the concerted abolition of 
compulsory military service in all countries, must 
first take steps for the prohibition of fresh arma- 
ments on land and sea, and for the common limita- 
tion of the existing armaments by which all the 
peoples are burdened." The war-aims memo- 
randum demands justice with reparation as far as 
is possible. It protests against an armed peace, for 
such would be treason to coming generations, but 
Prusso-German militarism must be defeated and 
disarmed, for "a victory for German imperialism 
would be the defeat and destruction of democracy 
and liberty." 

The German Government in its war-aims is posi- 
tively opportunist. It will get out of the war all 
it possibly can. The Hohenzollerns have, ap- 
parently, felt that the extravagant demands for 
territory and indemnities urged by the Pan-Germans 
might be useful in creating in foreign lands a wide 
margin between what is popularly demanded and 
what the German Government may eventually pro- 
pose, with the air of material concessions in the in- 
terests of peace. The declarations in the Reichstag 
have been considered useful by the dynasty in keep- 
ing the people hopeful of peace and in conciliating 
the democratic opinion in enemy countries, aside 
from the treacherous use of such declarations in 
deceiving and weakening the armed forces of the 
enemy and undermining their power of resistance. 
Military success in Prusso-Germany means 



260 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

vociferous imperialism, but when the armed forces 
in the Empire fail in an enterprise, the pacifistic 
spirit gains the ascendency. The events of the past 
four years clearly prove that a Germany desirous 
of peace is only a Germany disappointed in war; 
it is not a Germany morally regenerated and really 
loving the peace which she desires ; it is not a peni- 
tent Germany, but merely a people who see that 
the game is going against them, and who, therefore, 
struggle to get out of their outrageous adventure 
with the greatest possible salvage before they are 
crushed to the earth by the very forces which they 
themselves have created and which, unless stayed, 
must inevitably react upon them with retributive 
vigor. 

German "peace offensives" since the war began 
have been the attempted bargainings of a murder- 
ing and pillaging outlaw, intercepted with his loot 
by outraged and law-abiding citizens, physically 
stronger than himself. His assumed newly- 
awakened morality is but the argument of the inter- 
cepted, ravaging thug, who attempts to retain as 
large a part of his plunder as possible, and who in 
his heart really considers his failure and capture as 
his crime — not the horrible atrocities with which he 
has shocked the soul of the world. 

In spite of mihtary defeats and diplomatic set- 
backs abroad, Germany is still the wolf among 
nations, even though she endeavors in her fright to 
disguise herself in sheep's clothing; and as long as 
Germany is ruled by an absolute dynasty, a wolf 
she will remain. History reveals to us an abso- 
lute law in regard to the mental attitude and 
resultant actions of despotic dynasties: When 
seriously ill, a dynasty struggles to appear saint- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 261 

like; but in strength and vigor a dynasty is the 
lusty tyrant who blatantly boasts of its brutal 
power and bellicosely glories in its diabolism. 

The relatively "ethical" tone of statements of 
responsible German people, uttered from time to 
time during the war, has been an infallible index 
of how matters were going at the front. Any com- 
ment on the war permitted to be printed in Ger- 
man papers clearly reveals the feelings of Germans, 
not in regard to the ethics and rightness of their 
nation's actions, but with respect to their hopes of 
martial success. 

German reform under the HohenzoUerns is mere 
pretension, and, in reality, is only an acknowledg- 
ment of German military failure. When German 
armies are victorious, the nation is obsessed with the 
ridiculous idea that her heaven-born mission is to 
subjugate all non-Germanic peoples. When Ger- 
man arms are subduing weaker forces — for Ger- 
many worships weight and nmnbers alone, and 
never expects victory unless she can gain it by 
elemental predominance in guns and men, coupled 
with the outrageous advantage gained by devilish 
frightfulness, — then Germany is devoted to the 
HohenzoUerns, and regards democracy as a pesti- 
lential evil; but when, per contra, defeat is experi- 
enced, and disaster stares the nation in the face, then 
Germany is not so sure that the HohenzoUerns are 
on intimate terms with the deity. The people 
believe in the Good Old German Gott, and in their 
"divine right" Kaiser — God's anointed — only so 
long as these potentates are winning victories for 
them. 

The German people cannot be influenced by any 



262 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

rational presentation of truth, by logic or by real 
spiritual philosophy; their obsession — essentially 
irreligious, materialistic and egoistic — is too com- 
plete. The only argument they can understand is 
that of superior force ; the only instrumentality that 
can affect their calloused souls, atrophied by the 
most diabolical hallucination of all time, is the 
power of victorious arms. "Deaf to all other 
appeals, Germany is responsive to Foch argu- 
ments." 

Under the heading, Berlin Equations, a modern 
writer has said : — 

"One failed offensive equals an offer to join in a 
'peace' conference. 

"A small defeat equals a hint of a willingness to 
evacuate Belgium. 

"A big defeat equals an intimation that perhaps a 
part of Alsace-Lorraine will be restored. 

"A 'strategic' withdrawal equals an abandonment 
to all claims for indemnities, and two such with- 
drawals equals an insinuation that perhaps non-puni- 
tive indemnities will be paid. 

"The loss of a million soldiers equals a renewal of 
the agitation to 'reform' and democratize the German 
government. 

"The collapse of an ally equals the suggestion that 
Germany may surrender her conquests in the east and 
tear up the Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest treaties. 

"A crossing of the German frontier equals an offer 
to abandon all conquests east as well as west, and a 
pledge to pay for property stolen or destroyed. 

"An invasion of Westphalia and a shutting down 
of Krupps equals the flight of the HohenzoUerns and 
the setting up of a republic. 

"An occupation of Berlin means a new Germany 
altogether, and a complete disappearance of the spirit 
noxiously fruiting in the institution called Prussian 
militarism." 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 263 

The Hapsburg dynasty in Austria- Hungary is 
analogous in every respect to the Hohenzollern 
dynasty in Germany, and these two dynasties, aUied 
in their fight against democratic nations and demo- 
cratic principles, are the sole survivors among 
Caucasian peoples of despotic, autocratic govern- 
ment with its militarism and tyrannous enslave- 
ment of peoples. The myth that "Austria is more 
to be pitied than blamed" has no basis of fact. The 
Hapsburgs have been Hohenzollerns in spirit, as 
despotic and generally as inhuman when similar 
opportunities presented themselves. Throughout 
a long history there is no nation whose course is 
more plainly marked by brutal tyranny than Aus- 
tria's, and the present Austrian Empire consists of 
a Germanic people, controlling the destinies of 
other nations by sheer force; peoples who crave to 
be freed from the Teutonic curse of enslaving 
despotism, and who desire to rule themselves for the 
benefit of themselves and for mankind in general. 

Austria's ambitions and dynastic pride gave Ger- 
many an opportunity to plunge the world into war, 
and Austria has aided and abetted Germany in all 
her devilishness. The record of Austrian troops in 
Italy is identical with that of German troops in 
Belgium, France and Russia. The Italians, Czecho- 
slovaks and the Jugo- Slavs know full well the 
meaning of Austrian tyranny, and every people 
that have been made subject to Austria, curse the 
Teuton- Austrians and the Hapsburg dynasty from 
the bitter anguish of their souls. The tyrant Ges- 
sler still stands as a fit symbol of Austrian rule over 
subject peoples, and at this time it is illuminating 
to recall, in order to obtain an Anglo-Saxon view- 
point of Germanic brutality, that when the Aus- 



264 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

trian General Haynau, — notorious for the atroci- 
ties he committed in the Hungarian rebelhon, — 
visited London, he was seized and beaten by the 
draymen of Barclay's brewery as "the man who had 
whipped women." The court was furious, but that 
stout Englishman, Lord Palmerston, who was For- 
eign Minister at the time, "winked the other eye 
and refused to give Vienna any satisfaction." 

It is interesting to observe the vacillations of the 
leaders of the independent German Socialists (the 
left, i. e., the anti-war wing). They forgot all 
about their idealistic, international-brotherhood 
creed when Germany brutallj'^ invaded Belgium 
and declared war on France and Russia, and as long 
as Germany seemed to be winning the world war 
they drank deep of the imperialistic, Hohenzollern 
poison, with its diabolical doctrines of Pan-Ger- 
manism. But now that Germany is in the throes 
of military defeat and Mittel-europa is disintegrat- 
ing, these Socialists are once more beginning to 
glimpse the truth, or rather having satisfied them- 
selves that their militaristic quest is not going to 
bring to them the results anticipated, they are once 
more flopping, and gradually gaining sufficient 
courage to speak the truth. 

Eduard Bernstein recently said, "The military 
rulers who formerly enjoyed unlimited confidence 
are now met with open distrust. This is due to the 
military defeat." Hugo Haase has said, "The 
recognition of parliamentarism is due wholly to the 
military defeat, and the Scheidemann party cannot 
claim the honor of bringing it about." Karl Kaut- 
sky goes still further and says that the situation in 
Germany depends wholly on military events. If 
Hindenburg gains another great victory the whole 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 265 

parliamentary regime (which is merely a promised, 
superficial reform and which does not affect the 
real absolutism of the dynasty) will be thrown away 
in a few days. 

In times of great stress, the HohenzoUerns have 
been good promisers, but in success and victory they 
have always repudiated their promises, with the 
result that today the German people have the most 
backward and ridiculous Constitution of all civilized 
Caucasian nations. 

Until the German people overthrow the Hohen- 
zollern dynasty and take the power from the mili- 
taristic and blood-thirsty, medieval Prussian Junk- 
ers, they will never know what Constitutional gov- 
ernment, democracy and human freedom really are, 
and until that time the world will never enjoy the 
blessings of a lasting peace. 

There can be no peace for Germany or the long- 
suffering world, as long as the Hohenzollern 
dynasty rules despotically in Germany. There can 
be no League of Nations formed for the well-being 
of peoples and to guarantee international justice 
and the peace of the world, until all the great world- 
powers are democratic and the Sovereignty rests in 
the people. There can be no peace as long as a 
Hohenzollern, combining the political and military 
ideals of Genghis Kahn, Attila, Alaric, Genseric 
and Nero, holds in thrall some seventy million sub- 
jects always ready at his command to butcher their 
neighbors, grab their home-land, with its wealth, 
and seize and destroy their most sacred possessions. 
It has been well said that "More evils than Pan- 
dora's box contained, have been let loose upon the 
world by Prussian militarism, lust of conquest, 
brutal disregard of law and right, perpetual alarms 



266 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

in times of peace and barbarous savageries in war, 
but imperialism is the root of them all. The world 
will know no safety while it continues to exist." 

The real peace views of the German Government 
are affected not by Pan-German ravings or the 
whimperings of Social Democrats, but by the mili- 
tary pressure of the Allies' power. This force of 
physical might is the only message that the Prussian 
dynasty can hear and fully understand; the Ger- 
man Government is immune to any other power and 
unreachable through any other medium. When 
Germany encounters military defeats and is thrust 
back beyond her own frontiers, and vanquished 
German armies retreat on German soil, the people 
of Germany will awaken from their cruel hallucina- 
tion, the absolute dynasty will be overthrown, and 
only in the ascendency of real democracy, humanity 
and freedom, with a sound Constitution and a lim- 
ited monarchy or republican form of Government, 
and the renunciation of all militaristic and Pan- 
German ideals, can the real Germany find herself 
and take her proper place as a law-abiding, peace- 
loving, honest people in a League of Nations. 



XI. 



The Hohenzollerns' Debt to Bismarck 

NO intelligent person was ever deceived into 
believing that the present world-war was 
caused by the murder of the Archduke Fran- 
cis Ferdinand at Serajevo, by the Austrian ulti- 
matum to Serbia and by Germany's precipitous 
action. These were merely the immediate occasions ; 
the cause lies deeper. During the first half of the 
nineteenth century, the German people struggled 
to attain popular government, and the two irrecon- 
cilable principles, autocracy and democracy, fought 
for supremacy. France and Italy joined Britain in 
declaring the sovereignty of the people, but in Ger- 
many and Austria-Hungary the dynasties were 
triumphant and the people were driven by force into 
accepting autocratic rule. 

The mad King, Frederick Wilhelm IV, of Prus- 
sia, and his successor Wilhelm I, were the Hohen- 
zollerns who figured in the great human tragedy 
which stopped for a time the onward march of 
progress; but the HohenzoUerns would have failed 
had not Bismarck, the Prussian Junker and the 
despotic Chancellor of Blood and Iron, stepped 
into the breach; he influenced the Prussian King 
to tear up his letter of abdication, and then alone 
and an Ishmael among the people, compelled the 
Prussians to submit to his tyranny, and put on the 
chains of serfdom which he forged for their humilia- 
tion and subjugation, in order to permit of the auto- 



268 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

cratic survival of the Hohenzollerns and their Min- 
ister — Bismarck. 

After Napoleon defeated and humiliated the 
Prussians, a democratic spirit gradually pervaded 
Germany, and it was this spirit which gave birth to 
that patriotism which caused the Prussians to rise 
in their righteous wrath and cast the arrogant Cor- 
sican militarist from their land. Democracy ex- 
pressed in a love of justice and of an oppressed 
fatherland, made the Wars of Liberation successful, 
but dynasties and not the people themselves profited 
by Napoleon's overthrow. The Hohenzollerns, 
Hapsburgs and Romanoffs dictated the terms of 
peace, and again put a King on the throne of 
France. The Prussians who had fought for freedom 
from a foreign tyrant, were in their triumph yoked 
in bondage by their King, and a dynastic slavery 
of the people by a ruler and his government merely 
supplanted the subjection of a people and their 
King by a foreign foe. The dynasty of Prussia 
reaped the full benefit of the Wars of Liberation. 

In 1848, a national assembly elected by popular 
vote, drew up a Grundrecht for a German union or 
federation of states, in which there would be local 
self-government, but with a Federal Government 
superior to them all, to which every German citizen 
would owe primary allegiance. By this plan, Ger- 
many would become a true democracy, and every 
German was to be given the constitutional rights 
which he had never enjoyed. The Grundrecht 
provided for freedom of speech, freedom of the 
press, freedom of assembly, security to every person 
from arrest, except under legal warrant, and it 
declared for the principle of popular representation 
and required that the Ministers and the Army 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 269 

should be responsible to the peoples' Parliament 
and not to the King. 

The crown of a German Emperor was offered to 
Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia, but he refused 
it, and in harmony with other German princes, 
rejected all the overtures, suggestions and demands 
of the people. The Hohenzollerns did not aspire to 
be Emperors of Germany or of the world if 
Germany or the world was to be democratic; they 
preferred to rule a small country as absolute 
despots rather than a larger empire as hmited 
monarchs, or as a sort of President of a popular 
and representative, governing body. 

Bismarck trampled under foot the Prussian Con- 
stitution of 1847, and, after coming into power as 
the last, forlorn hope of the Hohenzollerns, he ruled 
Prussia for four years in the face of the most aggres- 
sive and violent opposition. He built up the army 
and spent money freely in military preparations, in 
spite of the fact that the Parliament would not pass 
the needed appropriations. He defied the Prussian 
people, and when the army was strong enough for 
his purpose, he seized Schleswig-Holstein, humili- 
ated Austria and cut her out of Germany — depriv- 
ing her of all semblance of Teutonic state leadership 
— defeated France in a war which he dehberately 
willed, and then imposed on the other German states 
his own conditions of union. Bismarck founded an 
empire in which the Hohenzollerns and their Prus- 
sia were supreme and absolute. He did not give to 
the people a Constitution as their right, but he him- 
self prepared a Constitution based on the preroga- 
tive and "divine right" of the King and Emperor, 
and the ascendency and domination of Prussia; 
this Constitution was diametrically opposed to the 



270 THE GERMAX OBSESSION 

liberal and democratic Grundrecht of 1848, and 
was granted to the people by their rulers as a volun- 
tary act of grace. 

Bismarck brought all of Germany under the 
domination of the militaristic Hohenzollerns. He 
maintained that it is the duty of citizens to obey 
their rulers and not to control the government which 
consists of the King and his satellites, — the nobles, 
— ^supported by the army. The German Govern- 
ment is a militaristic, absolute despotism, and the 
people are merely serfs of the land "to be drilled, 
discipHned and maneuvered into obedience to the 
will of their rulers." 

Prussia has long sought through compulsory 
school attendance and mihtary ser^'ice to instil in 
the minds of children and recruits, the instinctive 
habit of unquestioning obedience to state authority, 
and while it has done all that human ingenuity could 
suggest to develop the spirit of loyalty to the 
Crown, it has systematically undermined the initia- 
tive, self-reliance and mental independence of the 
people. 

In a world of constantly-developing democracy 
Prussianism has been kept in the German saddle 
of government for over half a century, by the 
despotic and tyrannous system perfected in all its 
anti-social and mind-blighting evil by the Iron 
Chancellor, who hved long enough to see some of 
the evils resulting from his over-enthusiastic, 
extreme and bigoted views. Bismarck was not 
original in his beliefs or in his practical expression 
of them ; he simply followed the generally accepted 
HohenzoUern and Prussian Junker traditions, and 
practically all that he did had been put into effect 
to some extent bv Frederick the Great, who ruled 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 271 

Prussia from 1740 to 1786 with an iron hand and 
a Machiavellian heart. 

Bismarck beheved in state and compulsory edu- 
cation and in the dynastic selection or endorsement 
of all teachers, lecturers and professors. In War 
and Democracy we read that in Germany today 
"No one can make a successful career in the public 
service (and education is a public service), unless 
he is considered politically orthodox, and orthodoxy 
does not simply mean abstention from damaging 
criticism or dangerous opinions; it means in prac- 
tice deference to the opinions of those who know 
better, that is, to the clique of Prussian generals 
and bureaucrats, who, together with the Kaiser, 
control the pohcy of the country." 

Bismarck had no personal dealings with the army 
which he kept under the direct control of the King 
and Emperor, but he realized with the Hohen- 
zoUerns that a dynasty could not exist without an 
army to enforce its arbitrar\^ power and support its 
despotism ; and he also saw in the army and in com- 
pulsory mihtary service, a medium by which the 
population would be taught the habits of discipline 
and of unreasoning and implicit obedience to au- 
thority — so necessary for the continuance of a 
dynasty with its absolutism. Through the army 
and the careful appointment of officers selected 
from certain classes of society and of known satis- 
factory pohtical views, Bismarck also saw the per- 
petuation in power of an autocracy of the sword, 
and the continuance in authority of the Prussian 
nobility or the Junkers. 

He also developed a system of press domina- 
tion and formed a highly organized and powerful 
department for molding public opinion. One of 



272 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the members of the German Press Bureau has said, 
"It is as scientifically equipped and as highly 
organized a machine as the armj^ itself, and it has 
over the army the advantage of being able to 
operate in times of peace." Finally, by material- 
istic measures, coupled with patronage, large bodies 
of the German public have been made dependent 
upon the favor of the great Prusso- German bureau- 
cratic machine. 

In The Schism of Europe (The Bound Table), 
we read, "The Prussian system of government, 
because it is autocratic in character and based on 
the ascendency of a particular class, distrusts the 
people and depends for its performance on cajoling 
and coercing them. German policy since 1871 has 
aimed primarily at producing, not only the con- 
script soldier compelled to obey orders, but the con- 
script mind predisposed to acquiesce in the exist- 
ing order, and taught to accept the authority of the 
Government as final, and to regard criticism of it 
as unpatriotic." 

Prince von Biilow, for several years the German 
Chancellor, says in Imperial Germany, "Liberalism, 
in spite of its change of attitude in national ques- 
tions, has to this day not recovered from the catas- 
trophic defeat which Prince Bismarck inflicted 
nearly half a century ago on the party of progress 
which still clung to the ideals and principles of 
1848." Headlam, the biographer of Bismarck, says 
that in the struggle between the Hohenzollerns and 
the people — the Crown and Parliament — the Iron 
Chancellor won for the dynasty not only a physical 
but a moral victory. "From that time the con- 
fidence of the German people in Parliamentary 
government was broken. Moreover, it was the first 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 273 

time in the history of Europe in which one of these 
struggles had conclusively ended in the defeat of 
Parhament. The result of it was to be shown in 
the history of every country in Europe during the 
next twenty years. It is the most serious blow that 
the principle of representative government has yet 
received." 

The enslaving of a people by a despotic dynasty 
makes that people not only militaristic, but it en- 
fetters their minds to the detriment of the race and 
the world, and also tends to corrupt their morals. 
Genius must be free; without absolute freedom it 
cannot express itself. German research under state 
domination and by methods of steady plodding, 
"trial and error," and not by that true scientific 
originality and initiative which is necessary for 
great world-moving inventions, has made the dis- 
ciplined German mind a practical developer and 
perfector, up to a certain point, but not a finder of 
new laws, principles, processes and methods. Ger- 
mans today obtain their inspiration for research 
from beyond their borders, and their work of 
development is primarily grounded on imitation. 

Character can likewise only be developed to 
strength and beauty in an atmosphere of absolute 
freedom. Unless one feels a sense of responsibility 
for one's actions, and unless one is permitted to live 
in an environment that demands the individual 
rendering of decisions where there is a choice of 
action, the will becomes weak through sheer in- 
activity; unless the will is strengthened by per- 
sistent use, it becomes numb and atrophied, and the 
power to lead one to courageous, manly and ethical 
decisions is lost. 

The enslavement of the German people and the 



274 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

deification of Force and Materialism within the 
Empire are not curses under which the German 
people alone stagger, but the result of their slavery 
is a menace to the peace, happiness and prosperity 
of the whole world. In The Schism of Europe, 
(The Round Table), we read, "The inevitable 
tragedy of the victory of force is nowhere more 
strikingly exemplified than in Germany itself, 
where, in acquiescing in the forcible establishment 
of a tyrannical government in their own case, the 
German people have gradually lost the sense of 
liberty themselves, and so have been led to make 
the supremest sacrifices in order to extend that 
tyranny over their neighbors." 

The only way to bring the German people to 
their senses is through the defeat of the military 
power which is the aggressive and defensive instru- 
ment of the dynasty. The German people cannot 
remove the Emperor from the throne or supplant 
an absolute despotism by a limited monarchy or a 
republican form of government, as long as the 
army is victorious and as long as the army is loyal 
to the dynasty. 

Prof. Delbriick, the successor of Treitschke in 
the Chair of History at Berlin University, wrote in 
1914, "Any one who has any familiarity at all with 
our officers and generals" (the Junkers and the 
lieutenants of Hohenzollernism ) "knows that it will 
take another Sedan, inflicted on us instead of by us, 
before they will acquiesce in the control of the army 
by the German Parliament." When the Ministers 
and the army of Germany are responsible to the 
people and not to a despot who professes to rule by 
"divine right," then will democracy triumph and 
Prussianism receive its death blow; but peace be- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 275 

tween peoples, federation of nations and com- 
pulsory arbitration will remain a mere hazy ideal 
until the German dynastic war lord, with his shin- 
ing armor, mailed fist and bloody sword, is de- 
throned, and the sovereignty rests where it rightly 
belongs — in the people. 

Sedan was a French catastrophe from which a 
free democratic people was born. A German Sedan 
would be the birthplace of a lasting German 
democracy. After nearly half a century, Victor 
Hugo's words may prove prophetic: "Thou (Ger- 
many) has saved me from my Emperor (Napoleon 
III of France) ; I, (France) have saved thee from 
thine." 



XII. 



The People^s Share in the Crime 

THE cause of Germany's degeneration, as seen 
on the surface, is difficult to locate ; it seems to 
take the form of a circle of connected points 
rather than a single central point. It is the dynasty, 
ambitious and militaristic; it is the army, alike the 
tool of the Emperor and the power which keeps 
him on his throne; it is the spirit of Pan-Germanism 
preached and taught by all the "authorities" of the 
Empire who work for favor and reward, and this 
doctrine of world-domination and super-race is 
pleasing alike to the educated and the vulgar mind, 
to the military and the civil, to nobles and peasants. 
The effects of Geraiany's "immoralism" with its 
repudiation of true Christianity are numerous, but 
there can only be one real cause and that lies prim- 
arily not in the most apparent source of error — the 
dynasty, whose tyrannous despotism could be re- 
moved if the people courageously willed it, but in 
the ignorance and stupidity of the people them- 
selves, who are content in their mental lethargy and 
mind-sluggishness to let others control them, do 
their thinking for them and be mere thoughtless, 
mechanical pawns on the chess-board of life, with 
their destiny shaped by arrogant usurpers of 
power, who seek to supplant God in the universe 
and stifle the Cosmic soul in the world. 

The literature of Germany clearly shows that too 
much distinction has been drawn during the war 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 277 

between the Government of Germany and the 
German people. Maeterhnek is one of the many 
who has refused to acquiesce in the lenient dis- 
crimination between a guilty government and an 
innocent population, "It is not true that in this 
gigantic crime there are innocent and guilty, or' 
degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all those 
who have taken part in it. . . . It is, very 
simply, the German, from one end of his country 
to the other who stands revealed as a beast of prey 
which the firm will of our planet finally repudiates. 
We have here no wretched slaves dragged along by 
a tyrant king, who alone is responsible. Nations 
have the government which they deserve^ or rather 
the government which they have is truly no more 
than the magnified and public projection of the 
private morality and mentality of the nation. 
. . . No nation can be deceived that does not 
wish to be deceived; and it is not intelligence that 
Germany lacks. . . . No nation permits her- 
self to be coerced to the one crime that man cannot 
pardon. It is of her own accord that she hastens 
towards it." 

Wilham L. McPherson, in commenting upon Dr. 
Wilhelm Miihlon's Diary (July-November, 1914), 
says, "If support for the theory of a clear rift 
between the German Government and the German 
people and of unwilling participation in the war on 
the part of the latter could be found anywhere it 
would be found in Dr. Miihlon's Diary. He is a 
bitter critic of the deliberate policy of the German 
Government which forced war on Europe. He 
would gladly have testified to the existence of 
an anti-war sentiment among the German peo- 
ple. Such opposition would have mitigated his 



278 THE GERMAX OBSESSION 

o^\Ti painful sense of isolation. But he could 
not testify to it because it did not exist. He says 
frankly, on the other hand, that all classes of 
Germans welcomed the war as a relief from the 
difficulties of Germany's pre-war situation." To 
say that we are making war on the German 
Government but not on the German people, 
may be a pleasing and appealing sophistication to 
many, but the statement contains only a measure of 
truth. Democracy is waging war upon absolute 
dynasties, and as long as peoples are willing and 
ambitious, or unthinking and stupid tools of 
dynasties, democracy must wage war upon them 
until they throw off their obsession, adopt true, 
ethical and hiunan ideals or assert their manhood 
as rational, reasoning, human beings and claim their 
birthright of freedom. 

McPherson says, "Say what you wiU about the 
helplessness of the German people in the hands of 
a mihtary autocracy, the fact remains that the 
German people have fought this war. And they 
have fought it in a spirit entirely different from 
that of the people of Austria-Hungar}% for in- 
stance. They have fought the war not merely out 
of loyalty to the existing dynasty and the existing 
political order, but for what they themselves ex- 
pected to get out of it," 

Miihlon writes, September 5th, 1914, of his at- 
tendance at a conference of the German leaders of 
the Iron and Steel industry. "There was nothing 
in their conversation or in their thoughts but force, 
material wealth, new territory to develop, discipline 
and methods of exploitation. Xo idea that would 
justify an extension of German rule, no benefits 
and no consideration to be bestowed on the con- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 279 

quered. In short, no magnanimity. They want to 
lie on the beds of other people, and don't mind 
being called barbarians for wanting to do so. They 
haven't the least ambition to win over other peoples 
by moral suasion." 

"Conquest and World Power" is the rallying cry 
of the Prussian dynasty. "Plunder" is the slogan 
of the dominant classes and industrial leaders in 
Germany. "Obedience to Authority" is the watch- 
word of the masses who seem quite satisfied in their 
mental stupor to have the Hohenzollern lieutenants 
think for them. It has been said by a German that 
an announcement by the authorities carries more 
weight with Germans than any personal investiga- 
tion on their own part. Miihlon wrote on October 
6th, 1914, "If I should ever hear a voice in Ger- 
man}^ w^hich speaks of justice, humanity or non- 
material progress after the war, or after our victory, 
then I will comment on the fact with pride and very 
fullj^ even if it is the voice of an unimportant and 
unkno\Mi person. I shall call him the first Euro- 
pean in Germany." 

A\Tien the Hohenzollern-Hapsburg dynasties 
agreed to wage war on certain foreign nations, and 
unite internal forces which threatened the Empire 
by giving them a foreign enemy to battle against, 
the Germanic peoples with unparalleled gullibility 
swallowed the dynastic bait proffered them, "hook, 
line and sinker." The explanations of the dynasties, 
none of which would stand any unbiased, searching 
analysis, were accepted without question, and in a 
spirit of glorious intoxication and patriotic fervor, 
the German people rushed headlong into a war 
which was to cause more sorrow and bitter anguish 
than the world had ever known in its entire 



280 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

tumultuous past. Herman Fernau writes of the 
enthusiasm, marvelous cohesion and bed-rock belief 
in the holy mission of the German cause with which 
the German people embarked upon this world-war, 
and he also says, "Germany did not rush into this 
world-war with feelings of remorse and horror, but 
with a shout of joy as though marching out to a 
festival." 

K. A. Huhn, in The True Cause of the World 
War (1914), has said: "God be eternally praised! 
The great masses of the people would have nothing 
to say of the evil of war. ... It appeared as 
clear as daylight . . . that the warlike spirit, 
that deepest and purest joy of the great heart of 
our people, was unshaken and unchanged. The 
warlike spirit, the love of war and the craving for 
battle, was no imaginary characteristic of our 
people — no, and a thousand times no!" And again, 
"Must kultur rear its domes over mountains of 
corpses, oceans of tears and the death rattle of the 
conquered? Yes; it must. . . . The might of 
the conqueror is the highest law before which the 
conquered must bow." The German people had 
been dynastically-drilled for war — mind as well as 
body. War was anticipated, and from war, it was 
predicted great economic benefits would flow to the 
people. Bernhardi says that deep down in the Ger- 
man heart is the love for power and conquest. "An 
intense longing for a foremost place among the 
Powers and for action fills our nation. Every 
vigorous utterance, every bold political step of the 
Government, finds in the soul of the people a 
deeply-felt echo, and loosens the bonds which fetter 
all their forces." 

For the Hohenzollerns the world -war is a gamble 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 281 

to uphold and strengthen their throne, and when 
they embarked on this helhsh adventure they felt 
that the dice were loaded in their favor ; if they had 
not thought so, there would have been no war, for 
in these days dynasties are cowards at heart, and 
in the game of life they believe in always playing 
safe. For the German people the war will bring 
either freedom or increased oppression. Every 
dynastic victory in war means the further enslaving 
of those people who made the victory possible. A 
defeated dynasty carries its people to freedom; a 
victorious dynasty strengthens the chains of 
serfdom which enslave the minds and souls of its 
people. If Germany should win the European war 
— an impossibility now — the people who have 
fought the battles of their rulers would return from 
foreign victories to oppression at home. Miihlon 
well knew this historical fact, proven by the records 
of all peoples, when he wrote in his Diary during 
the Fall of 1914, "What would await us if the war 
should end victoriously and a new spirit would 
begin to stir? Kicks and stones instead of bread; 
scorn instead of gratitude or the fulfillment of 
promises." 

Germany will be defeated by the foes upon whom 
she deliberately planned aggressive warfare, aug- 
mented by the two great Anglo-Saxon peoples, 
whose entry into the field against her has so effect- 
ively upset all her plans and calculations; but she 
will rise from her defeat victorious as a people, for 
the real defeat and humiliation will be dynastic. 
The defeat of Germany means for the people a real 
live Constitution based on equal and universal suf- 
frage; it means a democratic form of government, 
and, whether a republic or a limited monarchy, the 



282 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

power will rest in the people and they alone will 
have the right to declare war on a foreign state. If 
the German Government had been victorious in 
the present war, the German people would never 
have been granted any power or privilege, which 
would detract from the absolute and despotic power 
of the Emperor. Victorious dynasties never grant 
reforms in the interest of popular government ; their 
policy is to increase their power at the expense of 
the people, and never to voluntarily weaken or 
lessen it. Defeat in foreign wars, or internal revo- 
lutions, alone remove or take power from dynasties, 
and the former is usually the most effective way to 
produce the latter. 

When a dynastically-governed people are win- 
ning wars, both the government and the people talk 
of annexation, indemnities, and boast of what they 
will do when the enemy kneels at their conquering 
feet. In victory, a dynasty carries its people with 
it, and their thoughts are on the enemy and the 
benefits which will be derived from the war in which 
they believe they will have a share. But when the 
armies of a dynastj'^ meet with reverses, there is less 
talk of conquests, booty and after-war benefits. 
When the German armies are winning, the Ger- 
mans are unwilling to consider peace, for they 
might understate possible acquisitions if the war 
were to continue. When the German armies meet 
with reverses, peace talk is resumed ; the views of the 
government and the people are not influenced by 
justice, but by what they believe they have a chance 
of acquiring as a result of the force that has been 
and is being displayed. Miihlon, in his Diary on 
September 10th, 1914, wrote, "Fewer boastful 
speeches and fewer violent threats against prospec- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 283 

tive conquered nations show me quite clearly (in 
Berlin) how quickly people can become humble. 
Thej'^ also show, unfortunately, that only reverses 
and not so-called higher perception hold out any 
promise of the reformation of Prussia." 

The Prussians are great fighters in victory and 
arrant cowards in defeat. When fortune turns her 
face from them they show their "yellow streak" and 
"quit cold." In victory they are arrogant con- 
querors, ruthlessly grabbing all they can, and 
demanding all that there is even a vague possibility 
of their getting; in defeat they are whiners, ex- 
plainers, nauseatingly apologetic and as deceitfully 
humble and apparently simple-hearted, as in victory 
they were high and mighty, iUiberal and unfor- 
giving. The cry "kamerad" of the Prussians comes 
from a man who would brutally kill in cold blood 
if he got the opportunity to do so; the dynastic 
proffer of "peace" is a call in a similar spirit and 
it is permeated with the same treachery. The 
Prussian actuating idea is force; they think, plan 
and act in terms of brute force, and they are so 
mentally stupid and dense that they fail to see that 
in this twentieth century a people cannot be sub- 
jugated and controlled by force. A people in these 
days who are physically conquered by an aggres- 
sive people are sure to triumph morally in the end. 
A peace, no matter who is defeated or who is 
victorious, can never be built on force, but only on 
the free wills of free peoples. 

It has been said that "Vices are virtues carried to 
excess." The German author of J' Accuse! says 
that in the German people, virtue has produced 
their great weakness. "From the virtue of fidelity 
there springs the blind confidence which does not 



284 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

inquire whether the good faith of the nation has 
been deceived, and from the virtue of attachment 
there springs the unconditional adherence w^hich 
does not ask whether or not the path pointed out 
leads to guilt and destruction. The confidence of 
the German people has been basely abused by its 
leaders and rulers. Their eyes . . . have been 
wrapped in the gloom of ignorance. Her citizens 
who loved peace have been transformed into combat- 
ants full of hatred and vengeance; the representa- 
tives of culture and high intelligence have been 
changed into blind and benighted worshippers of 
success; men whose vision comprehended the uni- 
verse have become narrow-hearted, clinging to the 
soil of their country ; the lights of art and of science 
have been replaced by the spirit of the barrack- 
yard tricked out in academic freedom. The Ger- 
man people has been corrupted and blinded that it 
might be driven into a war which it has never 
foreseen, never intended and never desired. In order 
that it might be liberated, it has been put in chains." 
The virtues of fidelity and confidence that the Ger- 
man writer speaks of are not, as described, real vir- 
tues, for true virtue is manliness and fidelity^ — ^attrib- 
utes of a greater loyalty. Manliness is the expres- 
sion of the characteristics of a man, not a mere phys- 
ical or mechanical creature, but a reasoning, rational 
and spiritual being, — a complete man. No man can 
be loyal to himself, his family, his inheritance, his 
country or to mankind and his God, if he permits, 
with lethargic indifference, the atrophy of his God- 
given mind, and if he is willing to stupidly 
degenerate because of gullibility and mental lazi- 
ness, to the level of an unthinking, irrational and 
subservient slave. Virtue is the attribute of free 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 285 

men, not of serfs, and there can be no virtue in 
human beings who only function to raise themselves 
above other species of animals, who follow their 
leaders like sheep and repeat the dynastic creed like 
parrots; or, if instead of being responsible indi- 
viduals divinely endowed for a peculiar service in 
the world, in harmony with their inherent forces, 
they drift to thoughtless automatism and become 
mere puppets, with the lieutenants of a ruling, 
tyrannous and essentially selfish and inhuman 
despot, pulling the strings which shape their destiny 
and cause their ultimate sorrow and spiritual death. 

German children receive the "benefit" of uni- 
versal education, but the Prussian State has never 
tolerated Free Schools. Hohenzollernism possesses 
an indisputable monopoly of education, and Ger- 
man Professors are state officials. Teutonic "Im- 
moralism" and intolerant, pernicious Nationalism 
are taught the children from early childhood; and 
with the printing press, the lecture platform and 
the pulpit, all state controlled and their leaders sub- 
sidized, there is but little chance for an indolent 
mind to assert its manhood, claim its birthright and 
be loyal to its divine inheritance. 

Nationalism, with its Kaiserism, is the state 
religion of Prusso-Germany, and Pan-Germanism, 
with world-dominion, its great ideal. With uni- 
versal military training and the strictest possible 
discipline enforced, the Prussian dynasty, holding 
as it does absolute control over every branch and 
channel of child and youth development, has evi- 
dently succeeded in putting its devilish uniform not 
only upon the bodies of its young men, but also 
upon their minds and souls. 

A distinguished German prison official wrote 



286 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

before the war that one out of every twelve per- 
sons then living in Germany had been convicted of 
some offense. This does not mean that the Ger- 
mans in civil life are a criminal or disorderly 
people; it is merely that from babyhood to their 
graves they are surrounded by arbitrary "Law" and 
regulation. "And quite right that it should be so," 
says a modern writer, for without it now they would 
go to pieces, hke Bismarck's Prussian Lieutenant. 
"Quite right to hang the German world with the 
sign Verhoten; quite right to distribute titles and 
medals and orders, for the more they are uniformed 
and decorated and ticketed and drilled and taken 
care of, the better they like it. Over-organization 
has brought this about. Their theories have 
hardened into a veritable imprisonment of the will." 

There are two phases of the doctrine taught to 
Germans by the dynastically-governed state: Suh- 
ordination and ascendency. Subordination is de- 
manded of the individual to an all-righteous and 
omnipotent state, and ascendency is proclaimed for 
the state, i. e., the government and its people over 
all other nations and all other races and peoples. 
The German in relation to the state is an insig- 
nificant serf, but the German state is supreme 
among the countries of the world, and the German 
basking in the glory of the state is often uncon- 
scious of his individual slavery. 

Mommsen, writing in 1903, said of Germany, 
"There are no longer free citizens." Kultur is not 
culture; it is no longer the growth of the human 
soul in the free pursuit of beauty and truth, but it is 
merely the bhnd acceptance of Prussian standards. 
Kultur cannot exist until the state has robbed the 
individual of his freedom and his initiative, and in 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 287 

return has "organized, educated, blue-booked and 
inspected him into an obedient . . . cog in the 
great national machine." 

Prussia is Russia, led and dominated by a P. 
which stands for The Prince of Machiavelli. Both 
peoples are ignorant. The Russian masses are 
practically without schooling and mental develop- 
ment; the Prussians receive an ample measure of 
education, but remain mentally stupid serfs, for the 
education which they receive is dictated by their 
despotic Machiavellian Prince; it is not conducive 
to mental growth and real culture ; it is not liberal, 
idealistic or spiritual; it is merely mind drilling 
designed to make the recipients obedient and ef- 
ficient servants of their lord and master, who claims 
to be the anointed of God and the administrator of 
His divine will on earth. 

They who do not feel the darkness will never 
look for the light. German education functions 
psychologically to benumb rational and analytical 
minds; it makes of a naturally brilliant and indi- 
vidualistic mind the disciplined and obedient slave 
of a despot and, in the vast majority of cases, the 
enfettered mind robbed of all its inherent originality 
prates of a freedom and talks of being the sole 
possessor of light, truth, virtue and culture, about 
which it knows nothing. A man who cannot feel 
that he is in the darkness will never make a 
strenuous effort to struggle toward the light, and 
the light in Germany can only be reached by ener- 
getic, purposeful struggle against disheartening 
discouragements and in opposition to the decrees 
of all "authorities," to mass emotions and the 
violent surging current of an unthinking public 
opinion. A real thinker in Prussianized Germany 



288 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

today is branded as a traitor to his country, for in 
Teutonia, one's country is not one's fellow citizens, 
but the Emperor, the dynasty, the God-anointed 
despot who has the absolute power of life and death 
over his subjects, i. e., the right to declare war or 
to conclude peace as his arbitrary and capricious 
will dictates. 

But a people who permit a despot and his 
tyrannous satellites and selfish, lustful lieutenants 
to control their destinies, dominate their Uves, mar 
their freedom and crucify their manhood, are not 
blameless. Man is not an animal — a docile, tamable 
compound of body and brain. He is made, we are 
told, in the image of God, and in his being is part 
of the soul of the universe, part of God and part of 
the creative Cosmic Spirit of all life and of all 
existence. Man has implanted within him a spirit 
which is more than mind, and which, when it is 
kept alive and active, defies all fetters and all evil. 
Every man who is soul-free has a conscience and an 
intuitive sense which tells of right and duty. This 
spiritual sense struggles against oppression, im- 
prisonment and deadening ignorance of indiffer- 
ence. Every man who permits his soul to become 
atrophied by King or Church, Government or 
Educational "authorities," by despotic decrees or 
blind conformity to the opinions of the mob, is 
unspiritual, irreligious and disloyal, a traitor to his 
kind, and is merely disposing of his birthright for 
a miserable "mess of pottage." 

The German people are themselves to blame for 
their condition, and the excuse that they have been 
deceived bj^ their leaders is not valid and cannot be 
considered a justifiable reason. The responsibility 
of a leader who maliciously teaches error is greater 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 289 

and more diabolical than the stupidity of an un- 
thinking follower of "Immoralism," and the 
greatest measure of accountability and blame for 
resultant evil lies, of course, in the fountain head 
from which has sprung the poisonous and devihsh 
thoughts that have robbed men of their innate 
humanity and Godliness, and transformed them 
into "blond beasts, lustfully roving in search of 
booty and victory." To teach an error is a crime 
against humanity but to accept and practice the 
error is also a crime against the himian soul and the 
spirit of the world. To chain or put to sleep the 
spiritual watch-dog that stands guard over each 
human brain is sin, and all ignorance — which is the 
negative of wisdom — is sin, for God has decreed 
that all men shall instinctively know righteousness. 
Guy Stanton Ford, in Conquest and Kultur, 
has said, "Three years of war as conducted by 
Prussian militarism have done much to acquaint us 
with the purposes and methods of the medievally- 
minded group which controls the Central Powers. 
. . . One may not draw an indictment against 
a whole nation, but . . . the Pied Pipers of 
Prussianism who have led the German people to 
conquest and to ignominy and to infamy are 
a motley throng who are . . . heard 
in praise of war, and international suspicion, and 
conquest, and intrigue, and devastation — emperors, 
kings, princes, poets,, philosophers, educators, 
journalists, legislators, manufacturers, militarists, 
statesmen. . . . Before them is the war God, 
to whom they have offered up their reason and their 
humanity, behind them the misshapen image they 
have made of the German people, leering with 
blood-stained visage over the ruins of civilization." 



290 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

The people responsible for outrages should be 
indicted, and this includes not only the leaders who 
planned the crimes, but the rank and file who per- 
form them; not only the intellectuals and clericals 
who endorse them, but the mentally lazy folk who 
concur in their expressed "authoritative" views. 
People who accept these views as their own, permit 
their hearts to generate contemptible and bitter, 
senseless hatred for the foes of their despotic ruler 
who, in reahty, are neither their enemies nor the 
foes of their country. 

Notwithstanding the organization that a dynasty 
forms to keep itself in power, and notwithstanding 
that all a German hears or reads is propaganda in 
some form or other, whether taught in schools, read 
in papers and books, preached from the pulpits or 
expressed in the barracks or on drill grounds, it is 
still extremely difficult for governmental authority 
to absolutely profane manhood and deaden the 
human spirit. There are many instances of Ger- 
man soldiers at the Front, in more or less inactive 
trench warfare, who have admitted that though they 
may detest the enemy as a foreigner, as one an- 
tagonistic to what they have been told is the best 
interests of their country and people, yet they do 
not hate the man, unless they are actually engaged 
in fighting to kill. They often recognize in him a 
brother in misfortune who, like themselves, is sub- 
mitting to duties and laws, which he, too, believes 
lofty and necessary — but, of course, the foreigner 
is wrong, poor fellow, and the only way the Ger- 
mans have been told to transform the wrong into 
a right is to kill him when the order comes to fight. 
During the first winter of the war, after they had 
settled down to trench warfare, fraternization was 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 291 

rather common between opposing troops, but the 
practice was condemned and sternly forbidden by 
the Supreme German Command, for how could the 
proper fighting spirit, the inhuman brute spirit, be 
maintained, if the opposing soldiers were disposed 
to be friendly one to the other ? 

No more significant proof of the despotic and 
anti-democratic spirit of war could be presented. 
The armed forces of Teutonia fight not for con- 
science' sake, not for spiritual ideals, not for hu- 
manity and liberty, but because a despotic tyrant 
orders them to do so. They fight not for country, 
for home and family, for their fellows and for all 
they love in the world, but to satisfy the lustful 
ambition of an avaricious and power-grasping 
dynasty, which cares nothing for means, but only 
for results. The soldiers of the Hohenzollerns and 
Hapsburgs do not knowingly and intentionally 
fight for dynastic power. They permit themselves, 
however, to be deceived and even encourage mental 
domination and oppression, for whereas they would 
not willingly wage war against the highest interests 
of humanity, yet with unparalleled gullibility they 
believe all that the "Lord's anointed" says, all that 
the satellites of the dynasty proclaim, and all that 
emanates from the subsidized intellectual lieu- 
tenants of the Emperor. To a German all that is 
uttered by an official of the German Government 
or by an "authority" recognized by the state, is true, 
no matter how impossible it may seem to be ; and all 
that comes from the fountain head of Prussianism, 
from the Emperor of the Germans, is absolute 
truth; it is as the word of God and is swallowed 
whole in fervid faith. 

Miihlon, in his Diary, says of his countrymen, 



292 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

they remain "stupid sheep, filled with uneasy fears 
and superstitions. Nothing is more frightful than 
such dull herds which any one, when need be, can 
inoculate with mental epidemics. They remain 
always intellectually blind; they do indifferently 
what is bad or what is good, without any inner 
knowledge. They yield to the mighty stream of 
mass movements, whether these movements are led 
by an angel, dominated by the devil, or incited by a 
ghostly phantom." The Germans cannot be led 
by any one, but only by recognized authority, for 
they are blind worshippers of that authority which 
has freed them from the responsibility of thinking, 
and from the effort involved in the making of 
mental decisions. It is true, however, that the Ger- 
mans being mentally indolent can be bhndly led by 
their recognized authority into ways of either good 
or evil, for under the influence of a mental obsession 
they respond with hypnotic obedience to the com- 
mands of their masters. 



XIII. 

Despotism and Democracy 

ACCORDING to Crown Prince Wilhelm, Ger- 
many aspires to gain "the place in the sun." 
This would be a noble ambition if the sun to 
which Germany aspires was the real sun of truth 
and himianity, and if instead of "the place," he had 
said, "a place." The Crown Prince, however, pro- 
claims that the sword alone can win for Germany 
"the place in the sun which is our due, but which is 
not voluntarily accorded to us." It is a deplorable 
fact that Germany lies in the darkness, but the 
Hohenzollern Pan-German idea of "the place in the 
sun" is an exclusive and predominating conqueror's 
place, which ruthlessly thrusts all other peoples into 
the shadows. A place in the light and warmth of 
the real sun makes no appeal to the brutal, lustful 
warrior, the thug and assassin, — to the anarchist in 
the realm of law and morals. The world generally 
has progressed so far in the light that all truly cul- 
tured peoples realize that the sword is the last 
weapon in the world that will gain for its wielder a 
place in the sun. Only those free peoples whose 
governments are founded on the great principles of 
truth, justice and humanity can attain through 
soul-development to a place in the sun, — a place not 
accorded to them by any physical might, but by the 
exercise of the ethical promptings of the human 
spirit. 

The German people are in spiritual darkness ; the 
immoral doctrines of the Hohenzollern Intellectuals 



294 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

have warped their souls; their material aspirations 
and deification of the physical have formed a seem- 
ingly impenetrable cloud of evil blacloiess between 
them and the Universal God. The German people 
are held by invisible chains ; they do not realize that 
their minds are atrophied, and they fail to hear the 
voice of God siu'ging through the world to vitalize 
and empower the human soul and the divine con- 
science. The prayer of Ajax, in the Iliad of 
Homer, should be the soul-aspiration of all civilized 
peoples of the world today, who long to see the earth 
restored to peace with justice, and the great ideals 
of human brotherhood triumphant, for which the 
noble and democratic Christ lived and died : 

"Deliver thou, O Father Zeus, the sons of the Achaeans 
from under this cloud, and make clear sky above 
them, and grant to their eyes to see; so that if it 
be thy will to slay them, thou slay them in the light. 
Thus spake he, and Father Zeus looked down upon 
him in his sore travail. And forthwith he smote 
the mist and drove away the murk from heaven; and 
the sun shone brightly forth and the whole face of 
the battle was made plain." 

It has been well said that the part played by 
every country in world politics is determined not 
only by its interests but by the spirit of its institu- 
tions. "The much belauded kultur which Germany 
is striving to impose upon the world is the product 
of a military state which has not merely conscribed 
its subjects' bodies — as every state under certain 
momentous conditions must claim the right to do — 
but has conscribed their minds. The German State 
has exalted its interest as the only law; and to this 
law it appeals, not only over the individual con- 
science and liberty of its own subjects, but over the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 295 

moral conventions and ideas by which all civilized 
states are striving to regulate the crude arbitrament 
of force. It has standardized German kultur as a 
state product for its own material ends, and Ger- 
man kultur has become its body-slave." (The 
Round Table.) 

Nietzsche, in Thus Spake Zarathustra, said, re- 
ferring to the Prusso-German state, "The state is 
the coldest of cold monsters. And coldly it lieth. 
And this lie creepeth out of its mouth : — 'I, the state, 
am the people.' . . . 'On earth there is nothing 
greater than I ; God's regulating finger am I,' thus 
the monster howleth. And not only those with long 
ears and short sight fall upon their knees . . . 
The new idol would feign surround itself with 
heroes and honest men. It liketh to sun itself in the 
sunshine of good consciences — the cold monster! 
It will give you anything if you adore it, the new 
idol; thus it buyeth for itself the splendor of your 
virtue and the glance of your proud eyes. . . . 
What I call the state is where all are poison- 
drinkers, the good and the evil alike." 

The poison that has transferred culture into kul- 
tur, that has deified physical force in lieu of spirit, 
that has warped, distorted and crucified virtue and 
truth, and that has hardened the hearts and clouded 
the eyes of the German people, is the Hohenzollern 
conception of the state, which is dynastic, militar- 
istic, absolute and Machiavellian, — above all moral 
law. Such a state offers material benefits to all its 
talented subjects who sell their souls to it: — "It will 
give you anything if you adore it, the new idol ; thus 
it buyeth for itself the splendor of your virtue and 
the glance of your proud eyes." Prussianism infects 
the thought and conscience of the noblest with the 



296 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

taint of slavery; the poison which it scatters broad- 
cast among the German people through the medium 
of its schools^ churches, press, lecture platforms, and 
army camps, atrophies their souls, numbs their 
minds, and blinds their eyes to universal, eternal 
verities, to the demands of himianity and to the 
beauty of true religion. 

Prussianism is a devilishly insidious poison, for 
its doctrines of dynastic, selfish avarice and brutal 
lust for power and conquest, are generally artfully 
concealed behind some seemingly plausible, if not 
worthy, idea, which to the lethargic, enslaved minds 
of the people, groping in the darkness, seems to be 
transfigured to a lofty ideal for which they are will- 
ing to sacrifice their all. Prussianism is a pernicious 
nationalism that deifies a dynasty, enslaves a people 
and profanes the true spirit of loyalty which is the 
great essential virtue of a patriot, a religionist and 
of a real man. 

The Prussian system of state worship exalts the 
monarch as a hierarch who stands alone between 
God and the German people, i. e., between God and 
His chosen people, and so God is named The Ger- 
man God, The German Emperor is as absolute a 
monarch as God, for he is God's exclusive repre- 
sentative on earth and responsible only to Him. He 
is both a temporal and a spiritual ruler. King and 
Pope, and he stands between the Germans and their 
God, as did Moses the ruler, judge, law-giver and 
leader of the Israelites and the mouthpiece of Yah- 
weh, the Hebrew God. 

Wilhelm II, of Prussia, poses as a sort of com- 
bination of Cgesar and Mohammed. He is more 
than the Emperor of the Holy Roman Christian 
Empire, for the German Gott is greater than the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 297 

Christian God, and whereas the old emperors were, 
at least theoretically, subject to the Popes as the 
Vicars of God on earth, Wilhelm II proclaims him- 
self as "God's anointed," "His weapon," "His 
sword," "His Vicar," the Emperor on whom "the 
spirit of God has descended." In the Hohenzollern 
doctrine there can be no divided responsibility — no 
division of power. There can be no Pope, no head 
of the church, no spiritual dictator or leader other 
than the Emperor, whose power is supreme and 
absolute, and whose word is law. 

The Prussian state demands of its people bhnd 
and unwavering obedience to authority in every im- 
portant phase of human life. It is the modern slave- 
state, and as such is diametrically opposed to that 
free life which is the prime attribute of democratic 
government. The present war is a conflict between 
two ideas — despotism and democracy, between the 
surviving European dynasties, Hohenzollern and 
Hapsburg — both Teutonic — with their absurd 
doctrine of "the divine right of Kings," which gives 
a "rehgious" aspect to their tyrannous absolutism, 
and representative democratic government, i. e., 
the sovereignty of the people, which offers justice 
and freedom to a battle-scarred, exploited and en- 
slaved world. 

These are two fundamentally opposed ideals of 
government. The Prussian system maintains that 
the individual is the servant, i. e., the slave of the 
government, and he exists solely for the benefit of 
the government, which is the dynasty — the Hohen- 
zollerns. The state, i. e., the domain of the Hohen- 
zollerns, is everything; the individual — nothing. 
The Prussianized German system considers that 
government when perfected should "so discipline its 



298 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

citizens that they will render absolute and unques- 
tioning obedience to every order of the state, per- 
forming with machine-like precision the tasks as- 
signed to them." Prof. Miinsterberg said, "In the 
German view, the state is not for the individual, but 
the individual for the state," but the Prusso-Ger- 
man state is the dynasty, and its government is the 
will of the Kaiser, therefore, the German people 
exist for the benefit of their lord, who not only 
owns the land they live on, but also owns them — 
his vassals — ^body and soul. The German Kaiser 
is solicitous for the material welfare of his people, 
not in a paternal spirit, but as a slave owner; they 
must be nourished, clothed and kept healthy and 
vigorous, for in the German people is that man 
power which furnishes the dynasty with its instru- 
ment for enforcing the royal will. 

Dr. Wilhelm Solf, Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, in Modern Germany in Relation to the 
Great War, has said that the Prussianized German- 
state "is indeed like the woolen shirt which irritates, 
but furnishes warmth; it was forced to assume 
rough and harsh characteristics, created by bitter 
necessity. In constant pitiless discipline and ful- 
fillment of duty, the people and their princes 
became great. . . . The peculiar marks of 
militarism which gave Prussia her individuality 
remain with her today, for the reason that the pre- 
requisites for the existence of Germany as a state 
are more and more found to be the same as those 
which were once the deciding factors for Prussia." 

The state, according to the dominant Prussian 
school, is an end in itself. It is something beyond 
the people and is superior to the laws of morality. 
Treitschke says, "States do not arise out of the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 299 

peoples' sovereignty, but they are created against 
the will of the people" The state "protects and 
embraces the hfe of the people, regulating it 
externally in all directions. ... It demands 
explicit and thorough obedience." And again, "The 
state is the highest thing in the external society of 
man, above it there is nothing at all in the history 
of the world." There is no crime if the state gains 
some advantage from the deed; in the realm of 
morals, the state, i. e., the dynasty, can do no wrong. 
As the state is developed by military aggression, 
war becomes moral and even more to be desired 
than peace. 

Douglas W. Johnson, in The Peril of Prus- 
sianism, well says, "The safety of the state demands 
expansion to the Mediterranean, hence the provoca- 
tive ultimatum to Serbia was thoroughly justified. 
The advantage of the state necessitated a quick 
attack on France through neutral Belgium, there- 
fore the wholesale slaughter of an innocent people, 
while unfortunate, is a whoUy proper measure. 
The security of the army, the strong right arm of 
the state, is promoted by terrorizing the civilian 
population of occupied territories, and so the shoot- 
ing of hostages, the burning of cities and the com- 
mission of unspeakable outrages are to be tolerated 
for the good end they serve. International law for- 
bids the levying of indemnities on captured cities, 
the deportation of civihans, the employment of 
enemy subjects in military work, the bombardment 
of open towns; but the state is higher than inter- 
national law, and these things may be done if they 
are of advantage to the state. Humanity forbids 
the slaughter of non-combatants and the murder of 
women and children; but the state is higher than 



300 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

humanitarian considerations and these crimes are 
defensible if they are of convenience to the state. 
To the logical believer in the Prussian ideal of 
government, military necessity is an all-sufficient 
explanation for any crime, no matter how barbarous 
or revolting. ... A people devoted to the 
Prussian ideal become insensible to wrongs which 
revolt the consciences of other people, not because 
such a people is inherently more barbarous, but 
because militarism and the false doctrine of the 
divine right of the state inevitably degrade the 
ideals and brutalize the instincts of any political 
society." 

The other modem conception of government pro- 
claims that mankind does not exist for the benefit 
of the government, but government for the benefit 
of man. This is the democratic ideal — that all gov- 
ernment is the servant of the people and should 
therefore exist for their benefit. The democratic 
ideal is old; its spirit can be traced right back 
through the ages that have past; it suffered when 
the Christian church united with the state, and 
when the hierarchy assumed despotic power; it 
struggled forth in the Renaissance and was inten- 
sified by the Reformation; it grew to vigor when 
freedom of thought and religious freedom were 
achieved, and it first reached fruition when the 
American Colonies declared their independence, 
affirmed the divine right of every individual to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and main- 
tained that government, to be successful and just, 
must effectively promote the free development of 
its people. 

The highest prevailing Anglo-Saxon thought 
inspired the American Colonists to cut the ties that 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 301 

bound them to the mother country, then ruled by a 
tyrannous and mad German King; and the inde- 
pendence of the colonies proved to be as great a 
blessing and almost as potent a stimulus to demo- 
cratic government in Britain as it was in America. 
France "lit her torch of freedom at the American 
altar;" it smoldered for almost a century and at 
times seemed snuffed out, but the national humilia- 
tion of 1870-71 killed the anti-democratic, mili- 
taristic and Napoleonic spirit, and this time France 
was reborn to live forever as a great democracy in 
which the sovereignty rested neither in the dynasty 
nor ifi the mob, but in the people. 

The two forms of government existing among 
Caucasian peoples today are mutually antagonistic, 
and it was inevitable that a conflict should ensue 
between them. The democratic ideal of govern- 
ment is peaceful ; it repudiates aggression, arbitrary 
might, forceful domination, the subjugation of 
peoples and every form of injustice. The Prussian 
or dj^nastic idea of despotic government is immoral ; 
it is not actuated by any worthy ideal, but is abso- 
lutely brutal, therefore it will take what it can, and 
from whom it can, whenever it feels that its best 
interests will be served by such forceful acquisitions, 
no matter what methods have to be employed. The 
Prussian type of government is, therefore, a natural 
menace to all peace, culture, religion and civiliza- 
tion; as long as Prussianism exists, no peoples can 
live in security and be safe from ruthless attack. 

It is amazing that in this, the twentieth century, 
a people exists who are apparently willing to be 
enslaved, for within every normal man there is an 
instinct that not only abhors but rebels against 
slavery in any form. The Prussian system is one 



302 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

of "beneficent" serfdom, and it appeals to the 
materialism of a mentally-enslaved people. The 
German people are told that the government is for 
the benefit of the goverend, i. e., the Prussian gov- 
ernment makes the people more efficient and more 
prosperous than the peoples of any other country, 
and they benefit in full measure as the state grows 
in power among the nations of the world. The 
German people have enjoyed unprecedented ma- 
terialistic prosperity since Bismarck effectively 
robbed them of their hope of freedom and a con- 
stitutional form of government, and by bloody 
wars and diplomatic treachery made the Prussian 
dynasty supreme in a Prussianized-German Em- 
pire. 

A people enjoying unwonted prosperity and 
under the devilish psychological influence of the 
dynasty, expressed through every educative and 
developing channel — all state-controlled and state- 
censored — may be expected to docilely submit to 
the believed source of their success. As long as 
their prosperity continues they will permit ma- 
terialistic benefits to blind their eyes to their 
enslavement, and lull to somnolence their naturally 
reasoning and rational minds. 

Prussianism operates on the German mind like 
a religion. It demands faith, and surrounds the 
mind from earliest childhood with "authoritative" 
creeds and doctrines, and every medium for direct- 
ing thought along dynastically-prescribed lines is 
subsidized and supervised by the state. The people 
hear with never-ending persistence the tenets of 
HohenzoUernism preached as "The State;" on the 
other hand, they see how the German nation has 
grown great and risen to the position of a leading 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 303 

power in the world; they also see the people pros- 
perous, well taken care of physically, and ap- 
parently successful and happy, and they naturally 
and by suggestion attribute their prosperity and 
all the good things which they enjoy to their form 
of government. 

The German Government, however, cannot com- 
pletely isolate the people mentally. When an en- 
slaved people, absolutely dominated by a despotic 
and tyrannous form of government, live in close 
proximity to free men who govern themselves, the 
spirit of liberty is bound to struggle across the 
border, and no matter how the state may write and 
teach its "authoritative" history and philosophy, 
the inherent free spirit of man instinctively strug- 
gles against serfdom, and even after apparent sub- 
jugation refuses to remain enfettered to its own 
detriment. 

Douglas W. Johnson has well said that "Liberty 
is an inevitable, unconscious proselyter," and that 
autocratic government is compelled to offer to its 
subject -vassals "compensation for the slavery," and 
to endeavor in every possible way to "destroy the 
proselytizing influence which surrounds them." 
These ends can only be accomplished by militaristic 
conquest — the acquiring of foreign territory and its 
wealth, and the subjugation of foreign peoples. 
"Just as freemen — even in a democracy — will 
undergo stern military discipline for the sake of 
victory, so a subject people will submit to a ruler 
who assures them of military glory, material bene- 
fits and the privilege of triumphing over their 
neighbors." Dynasties are despotic and essentially 
militaristic. Dynasties must use their military 
power in conquest and permit their subjects to 



304 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

benefit in a measure by the spoil, or else they will 
quickly fall before the ever surging spirit of human 
liberty and democracy. 

If a dynasty suffers severe military defeats, it will 
fall; and if it does not lead its subject people into 
wars which will bring increased power, glory and ma- 
terial benefits, it will also be overthrown ; therefore, 
in these days of an awakening spiritual humanism, 
when the universal spirit of right, freedom, loyalty 
and himian justice is struggling to overcome the 
spirit of egoism with its really inhimrian selfishness, 
all dynasties and despotic forms of government are 
between the remorseless grindstones of destiny 
which will prove their eternal doom. 

The Pan-German battle-cry of "world-conquest 
or downfall" is a brutal statement of a djTiastic 
truth, but downfall is ultimately inevitable. World- 
power and successful conquest of foreign peoples 
will uphold a dynasty for a time, but only for a 
time, for it is written that liberty and the cause of 
the people must at last prevail. The Hohenzollerns 
and the Hapsburgs are now waging a frightful war 
of aggression which is truly for them a "defensive" 
war. "The tide of popular discontent with auto- 
cracy was beginning to rise in Germany and the 
autocratic government's most effective defense was 
a war which should unite the people once more in 
loyal subjection." 

The discontent in Germany was due not only to 
an awakening sense of freedom and the growth of 
the spirit of democracy, but in a great measure to a 
feeling of disgust with an autocratic form of gov- 
ernment that did not seem to have the courage to 
use its great military power to brow-beat its 
neighbor-nations and dictate its will to the world. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 305 

The number of seats in the Reichstag, occupied by 
anti-dynastic representatives of the people, in- 
creased when Germany backed down before other 
aroused European nations in matters of national 
policy, and the people freely denounced a system 
that demanded tremendous expenditure for arma- 
ments, and then submitted to what they considered 
a humiliation, because the dynasty was either pacific 
or cowardly, and would not or did not know how to 
use their unprecedented physical force. When, how- 
ever, the German Government acted aggressively 
in foreign matters and preached the doctrine of 
world-conquest, then the anti-dynastic seats in the 
Reichstag decreased greatly in number, for the 
people were worked up into a patriotic frenzy for 
German racial supremacy, and their "idealism" 
proved mere lust, the craving for spoil, for material- 
istic gain and for the power and glory of a conquer- 
ing and subjugating people. 

As the German troops swept through Belgium 
and France and approached Paris, the Hohen- 
zollern dynasty sat more securely in the saddle than 
it had since the days of Bismarck. The German 
people, conservatives and radicals, nationahsts and 
social-democrats alike, celebrated military successes 
and were intoxicated with victory. The violation 
of the neutrality of Luxemburg and Belgium were 
ignored, and without exception, the German people 
enthusiastically concurred and supported the ruth- 
less Prussian policy of the Hohenzollerns and the 
General Military Staff, as bluntly stated by the 
Imperial Chancellor in his attempt to justify the 
outrageous invasion of Belgium : 

"We are now in a state of necessity, and necessity 
knows no law. Our troops have occupied Luxem- 



306 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

burg and are already on Belgian soil. Gentlemen, 
that is contrary to the dictates of international law. 
It is true that the French Government has declared 
at Brussels that France will respect the neutrality 
of Belgium. . . . France could wait, hut we 
could not wait. . . . We were compelled to 
override the jiiM protests of the Luxemburg and 
Belgian Governments. . . . Anybody who is 
. . . fighting for his highest possessions" (to 
forcefully acquire that which belongs to another) 
"can only have one thought — how he is to hack his 
way through," and by ruthless methods and un- 
speakable inhuman atrocities satisfy his lust and 
craving for power, dominion and spoil. 

It will be to the everlasting shame of the German 
people that they, without exception, supported a 
Government that not only deliberately violated 
treaties and international law, but also inaugurated 
a campaign of ruthless warfare with atrocities, in- 
humanity and injustice, the equal of which was not 
reached even in their moments of most hellish 
depravity by Attila the Hun, Genseric the Vandal, 
Alaric the Visigoth, Genghis Khan the ruthless 
barbarian, and other German-Hun-Tartar devils 
who fought to enslave white men of superior civili- 
zations. 

Dr. Lange, in Pure Germanism (1904), says, 
that what other peoples call culture can be termed 
civilization, but "the noble word kultur should be 
reserved for higher values," and then he adds, "We 
should look to our army and the corps of officers 
to endow us with and educate us in these higher 
values." The much- vaunted Prusso-German kultur 
is not even a thin veneer covering inner barbarism. 
Prussianism is worse than barbarism, it is cruel 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 307 

savagery, and kultur is its outer surface, rubbed 
smooth and polished ; its principles are the absolute 
negation of all that human culture and civilization 
stand for. 

Whatever the Prussianized German Govern- 
ment cared to do to bring victory to German arms 
and to enforce the German will upon the world, was 
not only approved but enthusiastically endorsed by 
the German people — as long as it succeeded. The 
German people demanded success, and to the Prus- 
sianized mind only results are important. German 
patriots, philosophers, professors, scientists, noted 
educators, professional and business men, German 
scholars and thinkers who before the war enjoyed 
an enviable international reputation and had been 
honored abroad for their cosmopolitan views, arose 
as one man in defense of the German Government's 
rape of Belgium, and even went so far as to state 
that Bethmann-Hollweg made a grave mistake 
when he announced in the Reichstag on August 4th, 
1914, that the atrocious violation of Belgian 
neutrahty was a "wrong that we are committing." 
In the press, from the lecture platforms and the 
pulpits of the churches, the Intellectuals of Ger- 
many proclaimed that it was no wrong hut a right 
and a duty; "It would have been a crime against 
the German people if the General Staff had acted 
otherwise," for had not the mihtary authorities 
always said that victory would come from a quick, 
heavy blow against an unprepared people, and had 
not the German Secretary of State, Herr von 
Jagow, clearly stated the real purpose of the in- 
vasion of Belgium, which was "to advance into 
France by the quickest and easiest way . . . 
to avoid the more southern route," which, "in view of 



308 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the paucity of roads and the strength of the French 
fortresses" would have entailed "great loss of time." 

Not only did men like Dr. Haeckel, the German 
apostle of Darwinism and champion of "Monism," 
Dr. von Mach, the noted scholar and historian, Dr. 
Drysander, the famous Divine, and Dr. Harnack, 
the prominent theologian and ecclesiastical his- 
torian, vigorously endorse their government's policy 
in considering a treaty "a mere scrap of paper," 
and its ruthless act in violating the neutrality of a 
small and friendly neighbor-state, but even Rudolf 
Eucken, of Jena, the world-famous Professor of 
Philosophy, the winner of the Nobel prize in 1908, 
a man who has been regarded as Germany's 
greatest ethical teacher and one of the most 
spiritually-minded men in the world, even he sup- 
ported the government whole-heartedly and con- 
sidered their policy quite proper and sound, and 
their attitude thoroughly justified. Moreover, the 
German Intellectuals affirmed that "Belgium 
would have been wise if it had permitted the 
passage of the German troops," for the Belgian 
people "would have fared well from a business point 
of view, for the army would have proved a good 
customer and paid well." This is a peculiarly Prus- 
sian touch, grossly materialistic and void of idealism 
and real human understanding. According to the 
leading Prussianized-German minds, Belgium 
should have preferred cash to honor. 

An offensive warfare against Germany's neigh- 
bor-peoples, conducted in 1914, again proved the 
best defensive warfare of the Prusso-German 
dynasty against the democratic views of the people, 
and mihtary successes not only united all the people 
as a homogeneous body behind their government, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 309 

but directed their thoughts from internal reform 
and domestic discontent to the fruits of foreign con- 
quest, with the promise of increased prosperity in 
the future to a dominant German people. 

When Bismarck adopted the policy of "blood and 
iron," when, in the interests of the Hohenzollern 
dynasty, he stood alone and defied the Prussian 
Parliament and the national Constitution, when he 
persistently ignored the voice of the people and the 
demands of the press, he well knew that if he could 
bring about hostilities with a neighbor-nation and 
wage a successful war of conquest, all his crimes 
against the people's rights and liberty would be 
forgiven and forgotten, and, in victory over a 
foreign people, the throne of the dynasty would be 
made secure and strong enough to resist all popular 
attacks for many decades, or at least until the 
nation was ready to wage another war of conquest. 

The continuance of Prussianism demands an 
ever-expanding state and, therefore, a persistent 
policy of foreign conquests. The history of Prus- 
sianism and the Hohenzollern dynasty is a record of 
periodical conquests, each triumph, with its acqui- 
sition of territory and increase to Prussian prestige, 
being accompanied by a humiliation of the people 
who had made the victory possible. The Hohen- 
zollern policy demands a great army and its 
periodic employment in ever-enlarging conquests of 
neighboring territory. Frederick the Great sought 
to create a great connected Prussian state and make 
it a powerful nation among the leading Powers of 
Europe. Bismarck created the German Empire, 
or a great Prussianized-German state, through 
which the HohenzoUerns dominated all of the 
twenty-six states and dominions of the larger Ger- 



310 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

many, including the kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony 
and Wurttemberg and the various Duchies, etc. 
Frederick the Great made Prussia the dominant 
power in Germany; Bismarck made Prusso-Ger- 
many a great European power, and Wilhekn II 
aspired to make Germany, not only the dominant 
power of Europe, but the leading world-power. 

The Hohenzollerns well know that they must 
keep on expanding or be overthrown; for them it 
is now "world-power or downfall." Their policy 
for five centuries has been successful; therefore, 
ignoring the evolution of the world and the pro- 
gressive mental development of man, they persist in 
playing the dynastic game against the highest in- 
terests and the freedom of a great people. There 
can only be one outcome of the struggle. The terri- 
tory of the world, on the one hand, is limited, and 
the forceful acquiring of foreign lands with sub- 
jugation of peoples cannot go on forever, neither 
can the peoples of the world ever become German- 
ized by blood; on the other hand, notwithstanding 
the enslavement of the German people by govern- 
mental education, supervision and censorship, 
Prussianism cannot prevent the ever-growing 
democratic spirit outside of the German domain, 
with its intense humanism, its spiritual force and its 
development to world-moving power through 
liberty, loyalty, justice and its religion of love, 
sympathy and tolerance expressed in the brother- 
hood of man and the Fatherhood of God. 

The German Empire is a Prussianized military 
state — the nation in arms. Prussia dominates Ger- 
many, and the Hohenzollerns are absolute in 
Prussia. The Reichstag is not a representative 
body; it is not a Parliament; it is a mere debating 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 311 

society, and even this with restrictions. The elected 
members may go through the forms of considering 
legislation, but the Reichstag is not a real factor 
in the German Government. It is little more than 
"a convenient piece of poHtical scene painting" and 
the room where it meets has been well called by one 
of its members "The Hall of Echoes." Practically 
all legislation initiates with the Bundesrat or Upper 
House of monarchical appointees, which, with the 
Emperor's consent may dissolve the Reichstag or 
Lower House. The Ministers are responsible, not 
to the Reichstag or to the people, but to the Em- 
peror alone. Despite the outward appearance and 
the sham forms of Constitutional Government, 
Germany today stands as the most absolute and 
autocratic despotism in the world. The most liberal- 
minded, progressive or radical of the masses are 
inadequately represented in the Reichstag, but even 
if the entire body were democratic, the monarchical 
appointees of the Bundesrat, ever jealous of their 
prerogatives, stand ready to stifle them, and as 
fourteen votes in the Upper House are sufficient to 
defeat any proposed measure, and the Prussian 
King and German Emperor controls seventeen, it is 
evident that the Hohenzollern control of legislature 
in the German Empire is absolute. 

In the elections of 1907, the propertied and agra- 
rian classes in Germany elected three hundred 
members of the Reichstag, whereas the vast in- 
dustrial districts, which are the most progressive 
politically and branded the most radical and demo- 
cratic, only elected one hundred and thirty. The 
system of voting and distribution of seats has 
remained unchanged for over half a century and is 
grotesquely unfair. Thus 314,000 Social demo- 



312 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

cratic votes were entirely unrepresented in the 
Landtag, while 324,000 Conservatives returned 143 
members. Some of the constituencies with 40,000 
voters had the same representation as others with 
500,000 to 700,000 voters. In Prussia, the dominant 
German State, the votes are divided into three 
classes according to wealth, and one nobleman's or 
rich man's vote may be equal to that of ten thou- 
sand laborers. About three per cent, of the voters 
in the 1907 elections (the so-called noble and 
the wealthy) elected one-third of the "popular" 
representatives; about ten per cent, elected the 
second third, and the remaining eighty-seven per 
cent, of the voters elected the other third. 

It is hard to conceive of such conditions existing 
in this twentieth century in the center of civilized 
Europe, and in a state that arrogantly boasts of a 
monopol}-^ of brains and good sense. Only the 
dazzling light of true freedom penetrating into this 
darkest corner of Europe can bring justice and 
emancipation to a great people enslaved by medi- 
eval despotism. 



XIV. 



The Black Eagle and the White Dove 

IN Germany, before the war, there were two 
classes of people — the initiated and instructed, 
on the one hand, and the ignorant masses, on 
the other. Both in peace talk and war talk the 
Hohenzollerns have been extremists, and Wilhelm 
II has hugely enjoyed his dual role of the Black 
Eagle and the White Dove — of the arrogant, 
world-conquering militarist, and the humane, peace- 
loving pacifist. The German author of J^ Accuse 
has said: "In our writings and our speeches at home 
we preach a policy of world-power, of conquest, 
and of world-dominion — of course only among the 
initiated — but to the stupid people and to foreign 
countries we profess that it is we who have been 
attacked and fallen upon; that we are the victims 
of treacherous enemies. We also 'secretly preach 
wine and publicly drink water.' In the intimate 
circle of our Junkers, our Courtiers and our Gen- 
erals we raise the intoxicating wine of enthusiasm 
for war, but in public, before the people and be- 
yond the frontier, we drink the water of peaceful- 
ness, of meekness and of innocence." 

In Neue Rundschau (April, 1913) we read: 
"Never did people play so much with the idea of a 
preventive war as in the last few years, and never so 
criminally. As a theme for smoking-room gossip 
and as the topic of conversation of unimportant 
street politicians, it presents great opportunities ; it 



314 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

amuses the mob as games of chance do children. 
But when able German Generals, such as Bern- 
hardi, men of real serious-mindedness and of 
thoughtfulness, play variations on the theme, it be- 
comes a public danger." 

When the Hohenzollern-Hapsburg dynasties 
decided on war, the higher ranks of the "initiated" 
knew that it was a premeditated, much discussed 
and well thought-out plan, that the war was to be 
an aggressive, ruthless war of conquest for world 
power, and that Germany had willed the war. But 
the uninitiated and the masses had to be brought 
around to a point where they would enthusiastically 
support the war, hence the necessity of devising the 
fable of the war's being waged in defense of the 
fatherland. 

The war party in Germany has always been a 
minority, even as it is in all believedly civilized 
countries, but the forces that make for peace were 
not organized, and their credulity in regard to the 
decrees of authority, coupled with their general 
gullibility, made them easy and non-resisting 
victims to the hysterical, psychological suggestions 
that surged through their midst, and which were 
designed to produce patriotism, intense and ex- 
pressive love of country, and loyalty to the father- 
land which, it was claimed, had been ruthlessly 
attacked. The uninitiated in Germany had to be 
awakened, stirred up and their passions heated to 
fighting trim by malicious lies and diabolical deceit. 
Notwithstanding the efficiency of the Hohenzollern 
lieutenants of the schools, press, church and army, 
and nothwithstanding the general belief of the 
masses in the prime spirit of Pan-Germanism, 
nevertheless the German people could only be 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 315 

quickly aroused to the desired fighting mood, and 
worked up to a combative frenzy by making them 
believe that they were to fight, not a cruel and 
unwarranted war of aggression for an ambitious 
dynasty, but a war in defense of home, loved ones, 
fellow countrymen and fatherland. 

By false official announcements, a palpable war 
of aggression and conquest, born of imperiahstic 
ideas and serving imperialistic ends, was palmed 
off on the German people as a "defensive" war. A 
war, not of fate and necessity, but of deliberate 
design and will, was described to the people as a 
war waged upon them by envious foes. The Im- 
perial Chancellor on August 1st, 1914, said, "We 
enter upon war with a clear conscience and in the 
conviction that we did not wish for war." The day 
before, from the balcony of his palace, the Emperor 
had said, "Envious foes compel us to a just defense. 
The sword has been forced into our hands." And 
on August 6th, in his appeal to the army, the Em- 
peror said, "The sword must then decide. In the 
midst of peace the enemy falls upon us, therefore 
to arms! Every hesitation, every delay, would be 
treachery to the fatherland. The existence of our 
Empire is at stake — the existence of German 
power and German character." Not only the civil 
populace but the well-disciplined and Junker- 
officered army must be hed to. 

"Ems telegrams" and Prussianism wiU always 
be associated one with the other, but during the last 
week in July and the first few days of August, 
1914, the lieutenants of HohenzoUernism proved 
that in quantity and diversity of falsehoods, if not 
in subtle power, they were more than a match for 
Bismarck, the unscrupulous "blood and iron" 



316 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

founder of the modern German Empire. By "Ems 
telegrams" is meant the lying maneuver of which 
Bismarck was guilty in 1870, so exhaustively dealt 
with in his Reflections and Reminiscences. Its chief 
purposes were, by means of forged, mutilated, or 
even fictitious official documents, to incite war and 
to persuade the home people that a manifestly 
offensive war — a war premeditated and deliberately 
planned — was a wholly defensive war, and thus 
kindle that patriotic enthusiasm without which no 
modern state could successfully wage war. 

When the world-war broke out, the Initiated, 
i. e., the War party, the Pan-German leaders, the 
Junkers and the Hohenzollern lieutenants knew 
that "Der Tag" had at last arrived, but the Un- 
initiated, i. e., the stupid masses and the majority 
of the real German patriots believed that they them- 
selves, their loved ones, and their country were 
faced by threatening armies, and they rose in 
righteous wrath to protect and preserve all that 
they held dear in life. At the approach of war, 
every open and honest expression of opinion is 
made impossible in Germany, for a condition 
known as Burgfrieden becomes effective, by means 
of which civil authority yields to military authority, 
and the country is, in reality, under martial law 
and in a state of siege. By this extraordinary 
institution the German Government stifles the ex- 
pression of individual thought, the right of assembly 
ceases and all intercourse is controlled. The news- 
papers are permitted to publish only what is 
dictated or approved by the Government, and there 
is no longer any opportunity to obtain a reliable 
idea of the opinion of honest, unsubsidized thinkers. 
Miihlon says, "It makes a peculiar and profound 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 317 

impression to read only Government news and see 
military dictates echoed with uncritical enthusiasm 
in all the newspapers. One must believe that there 
is no longer any such thing as criticism or opposi- 
tion among the people. Even in the most intimate 
circles people seem to desire no real exchange of 
views, and to be satisfied with the revelations and 
orders of the state authorities." These conditions 
exist in a militaristic nation ruled by a despotic 
dynasty whenever it is at war. Tyrannical abso- 
lutism and democracy can never go together any 
more than militarism and human freedom. 

Under date of August 22nd, 1914, Miililon 
wrote, "I called the attention of a high official to 
the contradiction involved in the suppression of all 
opinion except that of 'Hurrah for the Govern- 
ment' kind, and the simultaneous exploitation of 
the complete unity of popular sentiment. He re- 
plied, 'It would not do in Germany at such a time 
to permit the free expression of opinion or to 
tolerate critical comment. The fact that all circles 
obey and do not kick against the pricks makes a fine 
and powerful impression. The means that are em- 
ployed must not be taken into consideration.' To 
put it in other words: He is much impressed be- 
cause nobody dares to risk liberty and life in a hope- 
less struggle against the authorities. It must not 
be forgotten that the day before mobilization, all 
Germany was declared in a state of war and siege ; 
in many districts martial law was proclaimed. 
Under such circumstances it is no wonder that 
everybody submits — all the more so, since the war 
has separated friends and relatives and the con- 
victions of many have been shaken by the hope of 
victory." 



318 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Miihlon also writes of the "scoundrels" which the 
German "state of siege brings . . . into the 
foreground," i. e., conspicuously before the public 
as newspaper writers — approved by the Govern- 
ment. There are the "disgustingly stupid officers 
on the retired list," the "worthy pastors who, with 
an icy soul and a good-natured smile, trumpet 
forth every base deed as a manifestation of Ger- 
man Protestant heroism; also the numerous Uni- 
versity professors who, overladen with titles and 
distinctions, swinmiing with every patriotic current, 
are either mercenaries or bounders, and who, out- 
side the field of their own specialties, are seeking, 
not clearness and truth, but only temporary 
notoriety. This highly respectable scum of three 
leading Prussian professions," continues Miihlon, 
"wants to make history by lying; wants to create 
historical sources by making barefaced assertions." 
In doing so, however, these subsidized tools of the 
dynasty and its government merely reflect the will 
of the rulers. When the German forces are win- 
ning, the braggadocio spirit is intolerable and the 
populace are kept intoxicated with exaggerated 
stories of the prowess of German arms and the 
glories of their victories. When the German 
armies are successful, some measure of truth is told, 
but when they meet with reverses all the writings 
of the Hohenzollern lieutenants, and even the 
Official News and Bulletins, are absolute lies. 

Prussianism lies to the foreigner, and lies with 
equal glibness to its own people; the whole struc- 
ture is built on physical force and falsehood, and it 
stands today in an era of progressive human culture 
as a hideous, barbaric relic of medieval despotism 
and treachery. Prussia and HohenzoUernism stand 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 319 

for aggressive warfare, national intolerance, Ma- 
chiavellian deceit, despotic government and an 
enslaved people. It is ridiculous for Prussia to 
talk of "preventive" wars. She is too avaricious to 
look with favor upon any plan that will definitely 
limit her boundaries; "no annexations and no in- 
demnities" are meaningless terms to the Prussians 
and will never be considered unless they suffer 
severe mihtary defeats. Prussia has never fought a 
victorious campaign without acquisition in land and 
money, and this peculiarity she shares with no other 
state. Prussia, under the absolute Hohenzollern 
dynasty, will never be a magnanimous victor; she 
will exact, as payment from the defeated nations, 
all the land and money that she possibly can by 
ruthless, soulless force. 

Since the commencement of this cruel, inhuman 
war of ruthless aggression, there seems to have been 
but one eminent man in Germany, courageous 
enough to consistently speak the truth and confess 
unflinchingly, adherence to his old opinions and the 
basic beliefs of all Pan-Germans. This man is 
Maximilian Harden (real name Max Witkowski) , a 
Jewish journalist, born in Berlin in 1861, and now 
editor of Die Zukunft. In the issue of August 1st, 
1914, he said, "Why not admit what is and must be 
the truth, that everything was jointly prepared by 
Vienna and Berlin. We should be . . . un- 
worthy of the men who achieved Prussian pre- 
dominance in Germany ... if fifty years after 
Koniggratz, things could be otherwise;" and in 
November, 1914, he wrote, "Away with the miser- 
able attempts to justify Germany's action. Cease 
waihng to strangers who do not care to hear you, 
telling them how dear to us were the smiles of peace 



320 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

we have smeared like rouge upon our lips, and how 
deeply we regret in our hearts that the treachery of 
conspirators dragged us unwillingly into a forced 
war. . . . We did not undertake the enormous 
risk of this war like irresponsible fools. We willed 
it. Because we had to will it and could will it. 
May the Teuton devil throttle the whiners whose 
pleas for pardon makes us ridiculous amidst the 
marvels of great events. We do not stand and we 
shall not place ourselves before the tribunal of 
Europe. Our might shall create a new right in 
Europe. Germany strikes. If it conquers new 
realms for its genius, the priesthood of all the gods 
shall shout the praises of the good war. . . . 
We do not wage war in order to punish sinners, not 
to free enthralled people and then bask in the con- 
sciousness of unselfish magnanimity. We wage it 
from the bedrock of conviction, that Germany as a 
result of her achievements and in proportion to 
them, is justified in asking and must obtain wider 
room on earth for development and for working out 
the possibilities that are in her." This is the spirit 
of the Prussian rulers, of the dynasty, Junkers, 
Government, of the Hohenzollern lieutenants — 
schools, press, pulpit, army and politics. This 
strong wine is served to the initiated, who, in turn, 
serve water, or water mixed with wine, to the 
masses, as conditions seem to warrant. 

A Covenant of Peace of Free Nations, which is 
intended to guarantee a true and enduring peace 
and not merely a cessation of hostilities, can rest 
securely only upon the mutual confidence of the 
contracting nations, on the hohness of the pledged 
word, and on the common interests which have 
welded the league together. The German author 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 321 

of J' Accuse! asks, "Is such a large-hearted peace 
policy to be expected of Germany? Is it possible, 
having regard to the international conditions of 
Prussia and Germany?" And he replies that, in his 
opinion, "it is not." "So long as Prussia continues 
to live under the most reactionary Constitution 
which is to be found in any civilized country in the 
world, so long as a laborious, patient and intelligent 
people still continues to be ruled as it has been for 
centuries, by reactionaries. Junkers, soldiers, and 
priests, who find their profit not in peaceful de- 
velopment but in military adventures, so long will 
it he impossible to think of a sincere and upright 
peace policy on the part of Prussian Germany. A 
family like the Hohenzollerns, whose rise is due to 
their militarism, will be convinced only by a strong 
counterpoise in the people, that the age of military 
conquests is past, and that today it is only in the 
peaceful competition of the nations that laurels are 
to be gained. As is known, this counterpoise in the 
people does not exist. The absolutism which 
dominates Prussia, which is only imperfectly 
marked by an outworn Constitution ( a pseudo-Con- 
stitution without even a lawful origin, having 
merely been granted to the people) this Prussian 
absolutism extends its influence even to the Ger- 
man Empire. . . . The predominance of 
Prussia in the government of the Empire and in 
the Bundesrat, the fact that the offices of the Im- 
perial Chancellor and the President of the Prussian 
Ministry are held by one person (appointed by the 
Kaiser and who, to hold his office, must prove to be 
the faithful vassal of his lord ) , the exclusive mili- 
tary power of the Prussian King in his capacity of 
German Emperor, and his right to declare war and 



322 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

conclude peace in the name of the Empire, all these 
facts operate in such a way as to make the German 
Empire in reality only a branch-establishment of 
the Prussian Kingdom." 

In this connection it is interesting to refer to Dr. 
Miihlon's letter to Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, 
written in Switzerland on May 7th, 1917: "How- 
ever numerous and crass the errors and faults com- 
mitted by Germany since the war began, I have 
none the less long persisted in the belief that our 
leaders would eventually show themselves possessed 
of a belated foresight. It was in this hope that I 
put myself, to a certain extent, at your service to 
collaborate with you in Roumania (before that 
country entered the war ) , and that I informed you 
I was ready to help you in the country in which I 
am living at present, if our aim was to be the bring- 
ing together of the parties at war. That I was and 
still am opposed to any work other than that of 
reconciliation and restoration I proved, shortly 
after hostilities opened, by resigning once and for 
all from the directorate of Krupp's works. But 
since the first days of 1917, / have abandoned all 
hope as regards the present leaders of Germany. 
Our offer of peace with no indication of our war 
aims, the unrestricted submarine warfare, the de- 
portations from Belgium, the systematic destruc- 
tion in France, the torpedoing of British hospital 
ships, have so discredited the governors of the Ger- 
man Empire that I am profoundly convinced that 
they are disqualified for the task of elaborating and 
concluding a just and sincere international agree- 
ment, . . . The German peojjle will only be 
able to atone for the grievous sins committed against 
its own present and future, against that of Europe 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 323 

and all mankind, when it is represented by other 
men with a different type of mind. To tell the 
truth, it is only just that its reputation throughout 
the entire world should be as bad as it is. The 
triumph of its methods — the military and political 
methods by which it has conducted the war up till 
now: — would mean the defeat of the highest ideas 
and hopes of humanity. . . . As a man and as 
a German, who desires nothing but the welfare of 
the sorely tried and deceived German people, I turn 
my back for good and all on the present representa- 
tion of the German Government. And my one 
desire is that all independent men should do the 
same, and that many Germans may understand and 
act. Since any appeal to German public opinion 
is impossible for me at present, I have considered it 
to be my strict duty to inform your Excellency of 
my point of view." 



XV. 



German War Aims 

IN the early days of the war, the German Gov- 
ernment issued a prohibition against the public 
discussion of war aims. Germany was confident 
that its armed forces would win, and refused to 
permit any discussion of peace terms which, she 
maintained, might be too moderate, and act to em- 
barrass her in the final forcing of her arbitrary 
decrees upon a vanquished enemy, from whom she 
was determined to exact every possible square mile 
of desired territory and as large an indemnity as the 
defeated peoples could stagger under. 

The military program included a swift crushing 
of France, but in this plan she met three serious 
obstacles: (1) Belgian heroism, which delayed their 
advance on Paris, (2) British intervention in behalf 
of Belgium and France with military support, 
which, though small, was effective, and (3) French 
resourcefidncss and valor, which, at the Marne, 
caused the over-confident, aggressive Germans to 
retreat from the gates of Paris, and change the 
nature of the war from the open movements of on- 
sweeping armies to that of trench defense. These 
unforeseen impediments resulted in the virtual re- 
scinding of their previous prohibitive order against 
peace talk and, early in 1915, reports were current 
throughout the empire of approaching peace 
negotiations. 

When Germany failed in her military efforts of 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 325 

subjugation, she was willing to consider the best 
peace possible and stop hostilities; she would take 
from the enemy all she could, recuperate her forces 
and await a more fitting opportunity to strike again. 
With the removal of the ban on the discussion of 
peace terms, the Government hoped to feel the 
national pulse and prepare the people for a less 
glorious victory than they had been promised. Out- 
side of the Junker and Military Party, the Govern- 
ment hoped to find many moderate suggestions of 
the spirit which could be used by them as capital — 
in responding to the people's wishes — in the event 
that they would later be compelled to accept a peace 
contrary to their hopes and aspirations, and very 
different from the plans originally outlined by the 
dynasty and its Pan-German militaristic sup- 
porters, satellites and lieutenants. 

In October, 1914, an appeal Au die Kulturwelt, 
had been issued at the instigation of the German 
Government, signed by ninety-three of the leading 
German Intellectuals. These men were Germans 
of the highest eminence, and the list included not 
only officials, professors and dignitaries, but men 
who, before the war, had been honored in foreign 
lands, and some of whom were so cosmopolitan as 
to be considered citizens of the world. Eucken, the 
spiritual philosopher; Hauptmann and Dehmel, 
the eminent poets; Haeckel, the famous Zoologist; 
Ostwald, the Chemist; Sudermann, the Novelist; 
Liebermann, the distinguished painter; Bode, the 
great art connoisseur ; Liszt, of Berlin, and Laband, 
of Strassburg, both noted authorities in jurisprud- 
ence; these were among the men of international 
reputation who signed their names to an outrageous 
appeal, prepared by the HohenzoUern Intellectual 



326 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Bodyguard for distribution in foreign countries, 
with the object of justifying Prusso-German Im- 
moralism as expressed in Germany's ruthless attack 
upon Belgium with the perpetration of unthinkable 
atrocities, and its waging of a cruel, avaricious and 
imperialistic war of aggression for conquest and 
power, under the false guise of a defensive war, 
waged only in the protection of the fatherland. 

This appeal clearly proves that the much-vaunted 
German kultur is merely a protective bulwark of 
the dynasty, and that even the most famous In- 
tellectuals of Germany are not only under official 
control, but are even willing to sell their conscience 
for royal favor with its baubles of patronage, titles 
and decorations. Fernau, the German democrat, 
well said, "It is not the work of logicians, scientists 
and free Germans, but of lackeys, whose views may 
be well discounted." The German Intellectuals 
echo the falseness of Potsdam and the Wilhelm- 
strasse, and boldly assert the following barefaced 
lie: "Germany . . . made every effort to 
avoid war. The incontestable evidence in support 
of this fact is open to all the world. . . . Only 
when the overwhelming forces of the enemy, who 
had been lying in ambush on our frontiers, fell into 
our country from three sides, only then did the Ger- 
man people rise like one man." This statement has 
been proven to be absolutely false, not only by the 
official documents of Britain, France, Russia and 
Belgium, presented to the tribunal of the world, but 
by the White Book of Germany, the Red Book of 
Austria, and by the official utterances of Teutonic 
statesmen whose attempts to justify their actions 
have led to the unintentional, but most astounding, 
admission of guilt. That which is false can never 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 327 

be fortified to appear as truth by the persistent 
presentation of claimed evidence. Falsehoods are 
anarchy in the realm of truth, and the more they are 
defended by additional hes the more contradictory, 
irrational and absurd they become to any dis- 
criminating, reasoning mind. 

The quintessence of Au die Kulturwelt, which 
positively proves the bankruptcy of Prusso-German 
aspirations toward real culture, is found in the 
following sentence, "But for German militarism, 
German culture would long since have been wiped 
off the face of the earth." This should read kultur, 
not culture, and we are constrained not only to draw 
a line between the two, but to assert thiat they are 
diametrically opposed to each other and represent 
the two extreme poles of human thought and 
feeling. German kultur is dynastic, militaristic, 
despotic and brutal; it is opposed to freedom, re- 
ligion, humanity, soul-development and progress ; it 
is Immoralism, its doctrine is world-dominion by 
physical force and it is expressed by the branding of 
treaties as "mere scraps of paper," by the falsifica- 
tion of documents, and Machiavellian diplomacy, 
by the subjugation of smaller and physically weaker 
nations, by the murdering of innocent children, by the 
ravishing of women and the torture of brave men, by 
cruel devastation of lands and cities, and by the de- 
struction of man's greatest creative works of art ; by 
the systematic murder of wounded and the maltreat- 
ment of prisoners, by crimes committed against the 
Red Cross and White Flag, by the poisoning of 
wells, and the malicious use of infectious germs, by 
the wanton destruction of fruit trees, etc., by the use 
of innocent non-combatants as screens for the mili- 
tary, by wholesale massacre of civilians, by the 



328 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

desecration of churches, depraved sacrilege, and the 
murder of priests, by the forced labor, slavery and 
deportation of women and men, by pillaging and 
arson without military reason, by the bombing and 
bombarding of non-combatants and open towns, by 
submarine murders and the destruction of passenger 
and freight vessels and neutral ships, by the indis- 
criminate use of mines, by the torpedoing of hos- 
pital ships, by cruel official murders of hatred and 
revenge as suffered by Captain Fryatt and Nurse 
Cavell, by wanton destruction of lives and property 
in neutral countries, and by the violation of inter- 
national law whenever Germany believes that she 
can gain advantage. German kultur must needs be 
defended by Zeppelins and bombing aeroplanes, 
which attack homes and schools and murder inno- 
cent women and children, poison gas, liquid fire, 
long-range guns which fire on churches filled with 
worshippers on Good Friday Morn, by inhuman 
atrocities, with murder, fire and devastation. 

True culture can only be found where men have 
progressed in the spirit, where every indication of 
atavism to the brutal and the merely physical is not 
only repudiated but abhorred, where the mind and 
soul raise man above the animal plane and direct his 
steps toward the spiritual ideal, where man has 
claimed his birthright and acknowledged all men as 
his brothers, and God the loving Father of all. 
True culture is mental and spiritual growth, it is 
religious and democratic, it demands personal, 
family, national and universal loyalty, with toler- 
ance and sympathy, but it denounces militarism and 
aggressive warfare, it frowns upon bigoted and per- 
nicious nationalism where truth and manhood are 
crucified, and it is unalterably opposed to despotism, 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 329 

dynasties, oligarchies and every power and influence 
that seek to enslave and deaden the soul. 

When the ban against Kriegsziele — the iJuhUc 
discussion of war aims — was removed, the great 
economic associations of the empire immediately set 
about to present their views of what this great war 
should bring to Germany. On March 10th, 1915, 
five associations, viz.. The Agrarian League, The 
German Farmers' (or peasants) League, The Cen- 
tral Association of German Industrialists, the 
League of German Industrialists, and the Associa- 
tion of the Petite Bourgeoisie of the German Em- 
pire presented a memorandum to the Imperial Chan- 
cellor embodying what they considered the essential 
objects to be secured by Germany in the war. These 
five associations were soon after joined by a sixth, 
the Central Board of the Christian Farmers' Asso- 
ciations (Peasants Union), and on May 20th, 1915, 
the six associations — three of which represented the 
agricultural (of which two are of the farmer, i. e., 
peasant class), and two the industrial interests of 
the land, and the sixth the lower middle class — pre- 
sented an amended and enlarged form of the 
original memorandum to the Chancellor. The de- 
mands urged by the six associations, it is interesting 
to note, are not moderate, humane and anti-mili- 
taristic, but positively dynastic and Pan-German. 
They demand annexation of territory in the east 
and the west. As an indispensable condition of the 
security of German sea power, Belgium must be 
subjected to German Imperial law, both in military 
and in tariff matters, while the industrial under- 
takings and landed property in Belgium must be 
transferred to German hands. In France the 
coastal districts must be retained as far as the 



330 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Somme, the mining districts of Briey and the fort- 
resses of Longwy and Verdun ; in these French dis- 
tricts industrial estabhsliments must be transferred 
to German hands. As industrial Germany would be 
notably increased by annexations in the west, the 
associations maintain that territory must be acquired 
in the east in order to extend Agricultural Ger- 
many, and thus maintain the balance. Another 
reason advanced for the acquiring of "the Baltic 
provinces and the territories to the south of them," is 
''the need of increasing considerably the number of 
our fellow countrymen able to bear arms." The 
colonies must of course not be forgotten, and Ger- 
many must have a Colonial Empire adequate to its 
"many-sided industrial interests." 

On July 8th, 1915, another manifesto of a similar 
tenor, the Petition of the Professors, was presented 
■to the Chancellor. It was signed by 1347 persons of 
position and note, of whom 352 were University 
Professors and Instructors, 158 Educators and 
Pastors, 252 writers, artists, etc., 148 judges and 
lawyers, 182 business men, 145 administrative or 
high civil officials, 52 land owners, 40 members of 
the Reichstag and Parliamentary bodies, and 18 
retired Generals and Admirals. It is said that 
many more signatures would have been obtained 
had the Government not interposed and forbidden 
any more canvassing, for they feared that the ex- 
travagant aspirations of The Professors might 
embarrass them later, if they were compelled to con- 
clude a peace less Pan-German than was then being 
suggested as a result of the intoxication of antici- 
pated victory. 

At that time (after the successive defeats of the 
Russian Armies) , the hopes of Germany were flying 
high, and the people again saw a most glorious and 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 331 

decisive victory, the annihilation of Russia and the 
gradual wearing down of their western opponents ; 
for France, they affirmed, was "bleeding to death" 
and the new British Army could not prove an im- 
portant factor to be reckoned with, as no nation 
could become military in a year ; and no matter how 
brave and willing to be sacrificed, the army would 
be merely a "Kitchener's Mob" badly and inade- 
quately equipped and wretchedly officered by inex- 
perienced civilians. 

The Petition of the Professors demanded the 
annexation of French territory: "For the sake of 
our own existence we must ruthlessly weaken 
France, both politically and economically, and must 
improve our military and strategical position with 
regard to her. For this purpose . . . it is 
necessary radically to improve our whole western 
front from Belfort to the coast. Part of the North 
French Channel coast we must, if possible, acquire 
in order to be strategically safer as regards Britain 
and to secure better access to the ocean. . . . 
The most important business undertakings and 
estates must be transferred from French ownership 
to German hands, France compensating the former 
owners. Such portion of the population as is taken 
by us must be allowed absolutely no influence in the 
Empire. Belgium and Baltic provinces must be 
annexed and lands for colonization on the East 
Front taken away from Russia. The idea of 3Iittel- 
europa is presented, and they request "On the Con- 
tinent in immediate connection with our frontiers as 
large a consolidated economic area as possible, which 
will render us independent of England and the 
other World- Powers." They advocate the Berlin 
to Bagdad polic}^ which means from Hamburg 
(and later from Antwerp and Rotterdam) to the 



332 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden, and the menace 
of not only Asia Minor, Arabia and Persia, but also 
of India, Egypt and Africa: "Our political friend- 
ship with Austria-Hungary and Turkey (slaves of 
the Hohenzollerns ) must open the Balkans to us, 
and we must secure Austria-Hungary, the Balkans, 
Turkey and Nearer Asia as far as the Persian Gulf 
against Russian and British greed; trade relations 
with our political friends being furthered by all 
available means." The Professors also suggest a 
Colonial Empire, and say, "Central Africa by itself 
would furnish us with extensive territory, but not 
with proportionate colonial profit; we therefore 
need adequate gain elsewhere." They also urge 
indemnities to an amount as large as conditions will 
permit. "If we were ever in a position to impose an 
indemnity upon Britain, no sum of money could be 
high enough;" with respect to France, they say, 
"however severely she has already bled financially, 
through her own folly and British egoism, a high 
war-indemnity must be pitilessly imposed;" from 
Russia a similar indemnity must be ruthlessly 
exacted and collected. 

It is therefore evident that when Germany felt 
that she was winning the war, the Intellectuals, the 
Agrarians or land owners, the Agriculturalists 
(farmers and peasants) , the Industrialists, the Man- 
ufacturers, the Bourgeoise or middle class, as well 
as the Junkers, JMilitarists, Government satellites, 
civil official, professional and business men, clergy 
and lawyers, were Pan-Germans. In Radical and 
Socialist circles, the Pan-German doctrines and 
propaganda were denounced, but often in an in- 
sincere, half-hearted manner. If the German Gov- 
ernment ever expected to obtain from the people 
sincere memoranda of modest war aims they were 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 333 

disappointed. The publicity in Germany of the 
memorandum of the six associations was forbidden, 
and the Petition of the Professors, it was decreed, 
should be a "strictly confidential manuscript," as it 
might prove disturbing at home, if a less favorable 
or even possibly a humiliating peace should be 
forced upon them later by victorious foes. Publicity 
abroad might, in the opinion of the Government, be 
favorable to Germany, as such memoranda would 
indicate the solidarity of German sentiment and 
prove that the war was a popular war of the Ger- 
man people, who were determined to support their 
Government and reap the full harvest of their labor 
and sacrifice. It was also suggested by German 
officials that the publishing abroad of Pan-German 
war aims, emanating from the German people 
would afford the German Government, when they 
met the representative of the foreign Governments 
at a peace conference, an opportunity to claim that 
their terms were more moderate than those de- 
manded by the German people. 

A year after the commencement of hostilities 
Friedrich Naumann wrote, "Whilst the open dis- 
cussion of war aims is forbidden, a dangerous manu- 
facture of war programs flourishes in secret. . . . 
Large economic associations put forth their views 
as if the world lay already at Germany's feet." 
During the summer of 1915, the Memorandum of 
the Six Associations and the Petition of the Pro- 
fessors were published in foreign papers and, of 
course, the real effect was diametrically opposed to 
what German pseudo-psychology had foretold. 
Theodor Wolff, in the Berliner Tagehlatt (August 
16th, 1915), had sense enough to see this, for he 
wrote, "It is impossible to exaggerate the harm 
done to the German cause." 



XVI. 

Germany^s Antagonism to America 

THE United States of America has been a 
serious obstacle to Germany's unscrupulous 
and lustful ambitions since it was found ( 1 ) 
that the JNIonroe Doctrine, if enforced, stood in the 
way of Germany's obtaining dominion and acquir- 
ing territory in South America, and therefore 
tended to effectually block the Hohenzollerns from 
becoming the dominant world power — at least as 
far as the Western Hemisphere is concerned, and 
(2) since by the peace terms of the Spanish- Ameri- 
can War of 1898, the United States liberated Cuba, 
shattered the Spanish Colonial Power, and acquired 
Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands — all of which 
possessions were greatly coveted by Germany. 

Prince von Biilow, in the Reichstag on December 
11th, 1899, said "If ever the course of world history 
hastened to bestow upon an undertaking what I 
might call the historical seal of approval, then 
this was the case when, directly after the voting 
of the naval budget, first the Spanish- American 
War then the disturbances in Samoa, and then 
the war in South Africa put our oversea interests 
at such different points in serious embarrassment, 
and fate proved it all before our eyes. You will 
understand, gentlemen, that in my official and re- 
sponsible position I cannot say much, and that I 
cannot dot all my i's. You will all understand me 
if I say that fate showed us at more than one point 
on this globe how urgently necessary was the in- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 335 

crease of our navy which took place two years ago, 
and how wise and patriotic it was of this high 
assembly to assent to the Government bill of 1898." 
This address delivered upon the introduction of the 
second German naval bill, and nine days after the 
agreement had been made with the United States 
and Britain concerning the Samoan Islands, clearly 
implies that if Germany had possessed a great navy, 
America would not have been allowed to aid Cuba 
and acquire Porto Rico and the Philippines. 

Tannenberg, in Gross Deutschland (1911), 
speaks apprehensively of the development of the 
United States ; he laments the fact that the Spanish 
Colonies did not fall into German hands, and he 
regrets that Germany did not embrace an oppor- 
tunity that seemed to present itself to seize "Cuba, 
the Pearl of the Antilles," and the Philippines. It 
will be recalled how reluctantly the German 
Admiral von Diedrichs restrained himself at Manila, 
and if it had not been for British naval backing, 
there probably would have been a clash at that time 
between our fleet of cruisers under Admiral Dewey 
and the German Pacific squadron. 

It is the definite foreign policy of the Hohen- 
zollerns and Prussianized Germans to acquire all 
that they have the power, i. e., the brute force, to 
acquire. Their code of ethics in international affairs 
is that of a brigand, armed to the teeth, who will 
murder, ravage and plunder to the full extent of his 
opportunities, and in complete accordance with his 
lustful avarice and bloodthirsty passion. The ex- 
tent of his lawlessness, horrible atrocities and ruth- 
less violation of the rights of others is determined, 
on the one hand, by his power and opportunity to 
satisfy his lust and enforce his devilish will, and on 



336 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the other, by the power and determination of law- 
abiding people to resist to the utmost and to help 
others to protect by physical force what rightfully 
belongs to them. 

If Germany had felt strong enough in 1898 to 
grab the Philippine Islands and keep the United 
States out of Cuba and Porto Rico, she would un- 
hesitatingly have attempted to do so. When 
Prusso- Germany assumes a conciliatory attitude, it 
is because she feels that she has not the physical 
power to force her will upon the other people or 
peoples, whose interests clash with her ambitions. 
Teutonic "peace-offensives" during the present 
war, and such statements as "We seek neither con- 
quests nor the establishment of hegemony over our 
neighbors," are but the cries of a frightened brigand 
whose bloody hands are loaded with loot as he is 
intercepted by determined law-abiding citizens who 
are strong enough to see that justice is done. 

For a long time Germany has believed that war 
with the United States, at some time or other, was 
inevitable. Freiherr von Edelsheim, of the German 
General Staff, in 1901 wrote, "With that country 
(the United States) in particular, political friction, 
manifest in commercial aims, has not been lacking 
in recent years, and has until now been removed 
chiefly through acquiesence on our part. However, 
as this submission has its limit, the question arises 
as to what means we can develop to carry out our 
purpose with force, in order to combat the encroach- 
ment of the United States upon our interests." 
Edelsheim then speaks of the need of a large fleet, 
but maintains "that a naval war against the United 
States cannot be carried on with success without at 
the same time inaugurating action on land. . . . 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 337 

If the German invading forces were equipped and 
ready for transporting the moment the battle fleet 
is despatched, . . . then mihtary corps can 
begin operations on American soil within at least 
four weeks. . . . The United States . . . 
is not in a position to oppose our troops" with any 
hope of success. To make the United States Gov- 
ernment sue for peace "the invader would have to 
inflict real material damage by injuring the whole 
country through the successful seizure of many of 
the Atlantic seaports in which the threads of the 
entire wealth of the nation meet. It should be so 
managed that various land operations in conjunc- 
tion with the fleet would permit us to seize in a short 
time many important and rich cities, interrupt their 
means of supply, disorganize all governmental 
affairs, assume control of all useful buildings, etc., 
confiscate all war and transport supplies, and, 
lastly, impose heavy indemnities. . . . As a 
matter of fact, Germany is the only great power 
which is in a position to conquer the United States." 
The Monroe Doctrine has always been a thorn 
in Germany's flesh. Johannes Vollert (1903) 
wrote, "The Monroe Doctrine cannot be justifled. 
. . . It remains only ... an aspiration, 
and so it remains only what we Europeans almost 
universally consider it, an impertinence. With a 
noisy cry they (the United States) try to make 
an impression on the world and succeed, especially 
with the stupid." Gerhart von Schulze-Gaever- 
nitz, Professor of Political Economy at the Univer- 
sity of Freiburg (1898), said that Germany must 
"emphatically protect her interests in Central and 
South America, where she occupies an authoritative 
position" and "in certain circumstances Germany 



338 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

will be constrained ... to employ coercive 
political measures. . . . For this purpose we 
need a fleet capable not only of coping with the 
miserable forces of South American states, but 
powerful enough ... to cause Americans to 
think twice before making any attempt to apply an 
economic Monroe Doctrine in South America." 

Prof. Johannes Unold, of Miinchen, in Das 
Deutschtiim in Chile (1899), said, "The Germans 
seem marked by their talents and by their achieve- 
ments to be the teachers and the intellectual, 
economic and political leaders of these ( South and 
Central America) peoples. ... If the Ger- 
mans do not accomplish this mission, then, sooner or 
later, in consequence of political or financial bank- 
ruptcy" these nations "will come under the domina- 
tion and exploitation of the United States." 

W. Wintzer, in Die Deutsche n im tropischen 
Amerika (1900) said, "The moral sanction of the 
Monroe Doctrine disappeared on the day when the 
treaty for the annexation of the Philippines was 
signed by JMcKinley. Thereb}^ America broke the 
tacit agreement 'Do not mix in American affairs 
and we will not mix in affairs outside of America,' 
and gave us the right to set up a doctrine of a 
Greater Germany against that of a Greater 
America. European interests, and with them the 
German, lie in America in case we have the power 
to support them effectively. We shall not forbear 
to accustom America to this point of view." It is 
particularly interesting to read what Wintzer wrote 
concerning Venezuela, just three years before 
President Roosevelt rebuffed the German Govern- 
ment for its evident designs on a Venezuelan har- 
bor: "It depends on the political situation when 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 339 

German diplomacy shall hold the time fit to put a 
value on the Germans of Venezuela and their in- 
terests by taking possession of a harbor . . . 
but nothing can be done and German emigration 
should not be directed to South America, unless the 
question whether Germany means simply to obey 
the American order of 'hands off' in South America 
is first answered in the negative." 

Arthur Dix, in Deutschland auf den Hochstras- 
sen des Weltwirtschaftsverkehrs (1901), protests 
against Germany's permitting the United States to 
own and control the Panama Canal. He also says 
that "Trade with the United States forms the big- 
gest but in many respects the unhappiest chapter 
in the oversea relations of Germany. Not only is 
the balance of trade heavily against us, but above 
all, the balance of emigration. . . . It is there 
that the German emigrants have given up their 
allegiance most quickly and they have helped forge 
the mighty weapons of competition which are now 
directed against us by the third world empire in the 
international market, nay, in our own!" 

Dr. Otto Hotsch, Professor of History at the 
Royal Academy in Posen, and at the War Academy 
in Berlin, in Alldeutsche Blatter ( 1902) , said, "The 
most dangerous foe of Germany in this generation 
will prove to be the United States." Hotsch insists, 
as do most German writers, that the South Ameri- 
can peoples are incapable of taking care of them- 
selves and developing their resources, and therefore 
they are the legitimate prey of some stronger 
power. The prevalent opinion in Germany is that 
the dominant power that will ultimately exploit 
and subjugate the South American peoples is either 
the United States or Germany, and no matter what 



340 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the United States may say or do, and no matter 
what the democratic ideals of our nation may be, 
Germany sees in the United States ( 1 ) a nation in 
a strong position to do those things which she 
(Germany) so greatly desires to do, and also (2) 
a nation which may prevent her from realizing her 
own amibtions. Hotsch also wrote, "The Ameri- 
cans cannot forget that the German settlements 
may be the entering wedge in South America which 
is to overturn the Pan-American air castles," and 
they "follow jealously the progress of American 
colonization and investment. Their fears are our 
hopes." 

Dr. Friedrich Lang, in Tteines Deutschtiirn, say Sy 
"A far-seeing policy is required, ruthlessly apply- 
ing all the resources of its power in concluding 
treaties with foreign states, which are eager to re- 
ceive our emigrants, and so would in the end accept 
the conditions accounted necessary by our Govern- 
ment. The Argentine and Brazilian Republics and, 
in a greater or less degree, all these needy Re- 
publics of South America would accept advice and 
listen to reason, voluntary or under coercion" and 
again, "A sturdy German egoism must char- 
acterize all political action. . . . The first prin- 
ciples of our policy. . . . must be that in every- 
thing that happens, the Germans (literally, the 
most German) should come off best, and the others 
should have a bad time of it." 

Klaus Wagner, in Krieg (1906), says, "The 
whole of America (North, South and Central), 
must become a bulwark of Germanic kultur, per- 
haps the strongest fortress of the Germanic races. 
. . . South America must and can easily become 
a habitation for German or Germanoid races. The 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 341 

lands must be settled by people of Germanic blood, 
the non- Germanic inhabitants being driven into 
reservations, or at best to Africa. ... A free 
South America for those of Germanic blood, that, 
too, is a sublime end, which will be attained by war, 
not perhaps by the conquest of the land by . . . 
troops, but through the colonizing efforts and self- 
assertion of the South American Germans." 

Tannenberg, in Gross Deutschland (1911), says, 
"Germany takes under her protection the Republics 
of Argentine, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay, the 
southern third of Bolivia, as much as belongs to the 
basin of the Rio de la Plata and the Southern part 
of Brazil." This author is willing that Chile and 
Argentine should "keep their language and au- 
tonomy" at this time, "but we should insist upon 
the teaching of German in the schools as a second 
language. Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay 
are the countries for German kultur. German 
should there be the national language." Tannen- 
berg also says that "The German settlements in 
South Brazil and Uruguay are the onlj^ ray of light 
in this dismal picture of South American civiliza- 
tion. . . . It is to be hoped . . . that the 
immense plains of the Platte, with the coast in the 
west, the east and the south, will fall into the hands 
of the German people. . . . It is truly a miracle 
that the German people did not long ago resolve on 
seizing the country. . . . False modesty has no 
place in a struggle for world empire. . . . To 
the inhabitants of the South American Republics, it 
would only be a blessing if they came under Ger- 
man control. They would soon reconcile themselves 
to German rule and take delight in the fame of the 
German name in the world." But Wagner has told 



342 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

us that "the non-Germanic inhabitants" of these 
lands would be "driven into reservations" or de- 
ported to Africa. 

The German policy toward conquered peoples, as 
generally stated by Pan-German writers and 
Hohenzollern Intellectuals, is extermination or 
slavery; it is difficidt therefore to see why a sub- 
jugated people "would soon reconcile themselves to 
German rule and take delight in the fame of the 
German name in the world." The inhabitants of 
Alsace-Lorraine, Poland and Belgium, far nearer 
the center of Prusso-German kultur, have assuredly 
not shown such a spirit of reconciliation and pride. 

Prof. Hermann Schumacher, in Meishegunsti- 
gnng nnd Zollunterscheidung, writing in 1915, dis- 
cusses the lessening of German influence in the 
Southern American countries brought about by the 
world war, and naively remarks, "We shall have a 
claim by right of victory and by considerations of 
justice for damages at the expense of Britain and 
the United States." Alfred Hettner, in Die Ziele 
unserer Weltpolitik (1915), said, "In the case of 
America our public opinion is to some extent lack- 
ing in courage. Just because the United States has 
set up the Monroe Doctrine to exclude Europeans 
from America, it does not follow that we should 
acquiesce in that doctrine." 

Emperor Wilhelm II, in a speech delivered June 
16th, 1896, said, "The German Empire has become 
a world empire. ... In distant quarters of the 
earth thousands of our countrymen are living. 
. . . It is my wish that, standing in closest 
union, you help me to do my duty not only to my 
countrymen in a narrower sense, but also to the many 
thousands of countrj'^men in foreign lands. This 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 343 

means that I may be able to protect them if I must," 
i. e., interfere with the affairs of other nations, and 
if such peoples do not graciously accept such un- 
warranted interference, then German will must be 
enforced by German power. This speech was a 
menace to the South American Repubhcs and a 
threat against the Monroe Doctrine which, if carried 
out, would involve the United States. 

James W. Gerard, American Ambassador to 
Berlin, in My Four Years in Germany, says in 
summarizing an interview with the German Em- 
peror on October 22nd, 1915, "He showed . . . 
a great bitterness against the United States and 
repeatedly said, 'America had better look out after 
this war,' and 'I shall stand no nonsense from 
America after the war.' ... I was so fearful 
in reporting the dangerous part of this interview, 
on account of the many spies not only in my own 
embassy but also in the State Department, that I 
sent but very few words in a round-about way by 
courier direct to the President." 

In Conquest and Kultur, issued by "The Com- 
mittee on Public Information," is the report of a 
conversation between Count von Goetzen, Mihtary 
Attache from Germany, and Major N. A. Bailey, 
U. S. A., held on board the S. S. Santee at the close 
of the Spanish- American War (1898.) The two 
officers had been discussing the friction between 
Admiral Dewey and Admiral von Diedrichs, at 
Manila, and Count von Goetzen said, "I will teU 
you something which you better make note of. I am 
not afraid to tell you this, because if you speak of it, 
no one would believe you and everybody will laugh 
at you. About fifteen years from now, my country 
will start her great war. She will be in Paris in 
about two months after the commencement of 



344 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

hostilities. Her move on Paris will be but a step to 
her real object — the crushing of Britain. Every- 
thing will move hke clockwork. We will be pre- 
pared and others will not be prepared. . . . 
Some months after we finish our work in Europe 
we will take New York and probably Washington, 
and hold them for some time. We will put your 
country in its place with reference to Germany. 
We do not propose to take any of your territory, 
but we do intend to take a billion or more dollars 
from New York and other places. The Monroe 
Doctrine will be taken charge of by us, as we will 
then have put you in your place, and we will take 
charge of South America as far as we want to. I 
have no hostility toward your country; I like it, 
but we have to go our own way." 

In Conquest and Kultur we also read a statement 
by A. Curtis Roth, former American Vice Consul 
at Plauen: "The Germans became imbued with the 
idea that America must be made to suffer, that 
America must indemnify the German people, 
and behind these ideas were the German army 
and navy, the Pan-Germans, the Agrarians, Con- 
servatives of all hues, and the National Liberals, 
the National German Committee . . . and the 
German Government. ... In April, 1915, I 
was with a party of German officers at Bad Elster 
in Southeastern Saxony. . . . Major Liebster 
sought the occasion for a conversation with me, and 
among other things said, 'We are keeping books on 
you Americans. It's a long account and we haven't 
missed any details. Rest assured that the account 
will be presented to you some day for settlement. 
. . . We are keeping the account in black and 
white . . . with customary Germany thorough- 



XVII. 



Americans Entry Into the War. 

AT the outbreak of the Great War, American 
opinion was confused as to the issues at stake, 
the merits of the principles, and the worthi- 
ness of the ideals as represented by the two groups 
of combatants. There were but few Americans 
well posted on the German doctrine of Immoralism, 
or who had any clear idea of what Prusso-German 
militarism and Hohenzollern despotism really 
meant. Britain, France and Russia were con- 
sidered as the home lands of British- Americans, 
Franco- Americans and Russo- Americans ; Ger- 
many was the fatherland of German- Americans, 
and Austro-Hungary, the original homeland of 
Americanized Austro-Hungarians, Bohemians, etc. 
Americans in general formed their opinions of all 
foreign nations by their Americanized offspring. 

Ignoring the great differences existing between 
the forms of certain foreign governments, they 
formed hasty estimates of German}^ based on their 
knowledge and respect for worthy German- Ameri- 
cans; and their views in regard to Britain, France 
and Russia were influenced by their experience with, 
and understanding of the character and attributes of 
British-Americans, Franco- Americans, and Russo- 
Americans, with more or less knowledge, generally 
of a superficial nature, in regard to the relation of 
the various European countries to the United States 
as recorded in the pages of American history. The 



346 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

inevitable result was the tendency of American 
opinion to degenerate to the plane where there was 
expressed, with more or less freedom and at times 
with warmth and fervor, the mere shallow but con- 
flicting sympathies of hyphenated groups. 

America, separated from Europe by the waters 
of the Atlantic, and glorying in its apparent isola- 
tion, considered the European conflict for a long 
time as a mere armed combat between two alliances 
of worthy peoples. The United States officially de- 
clared its neutrality on August 4th, 1914, and two 
weeks later President Wilson issued an appeal to 
the country for neutrality of sentiment: "Every 
man who really loves America will act and speak 
in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of 
impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all con- 
cerned. ... It will be easy to excite passion 
and difficult to allay it." He expressed the fear 
that our nation might become divided into camps of 
hostile opinion. "Such divisions among us . . . 
might seriously stand in the way of the proper per- 
formance of our duty as the one great nation at 
peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a 
part of impartial mediation and speak counsels of 
peace and accommodation, not as a partisan but as 
a friend." When this message was given to the 
American people, the prime thought in the mind of 
our Executive was not the principles for which the 
European belligerents were fighting and which in 
their essence have remained unchanged throughout 
the war, but harmony at home and the enjoyment 
of peaceful isolation from turbulent European 
affairs. 

Belgium had been invaded and was being ruth- 
lessly ravaged. The German Chancellor had con- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 347 

temptuously branded a treaty as "a mere scrap of 
paper," and arrogantly proclaimed the doctrine that 
"Necessity knows no law." The German hordes 
were terrorizing the brave Belgian people, com- 
mitting unspeakable atrocities and the war had 
commenced with the full and unrestrained expres- 
sion of all the hideous teachings of Prussianism, yet 
not one word of real protest emanated from our 
Government in regard to Germany's premeditated 
and deliberate violation of international law. 

The German Government, by its initial steps 
taken in the Great War, proved that it was not ex- 
pressing the beliefs and ideals of German- Ameri- 
cans, but that Hohenzollernism was in the saddle, 
and Prussian immoralism with an absolutism made 
powerful and horrible by soulless militarism, was 
surging forth over peaceful lands, trampling under 
foot the innocent humanity of other nations who, 
with faith in their kind, were caught unprepared to 
cope with the organized and fiendish forces of hell. 

From the early days of their invasion of Belgium, 
the Hohenzollern and Prussian Junkers and the 
Prussianized-German General Staff, did not wage 
war as war should have been conducted, according to 
the dictates of international law. They lashed the 
enmity that they themselves had created into pas- 
sion and frenzy, and then revelled in the unlicensed 
orgy of brutish and anarchical fury which sought to 
exterminate the man power and military resources 
of a heroic people struggling to defend their homes 
from the "Blond Beast," and terrorize the non- 
military population into subjugation and a slavery 
worse than death. 

When the Great War broke out, America did not 
truly know the Prussia of Frederick the Great and 



348 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

the real Prussianized Germany of Bismarck and 
Wilhelm II. Germany was erroneously believed to 
be a nation which represented in European circles 
the ideals and characteristics as generally expressed 
by German- Americans, and our Government was 
apparently fully as ignorant of fact as were the 
people. 

Gradually, however, America, while still in gross 
ignorance of German writings. Teuton pseudo- 
philosophy and Hohenzollern mihtarism and Machi- 
avellism, revolted at the news of Prusso-German 
actions, but Teutonic propaganda, organized, subtle 
and devilish, worked unceasingly to befog the issue 
and suppress truth. As the knowledge of conditions 
in Europe and the unprecedented atrocious actions 
of Germany percolated with gradually increasing 
frequency and vividness through the American 
mind, the sentiment of our "neutral" and open- 
minded citizens became more and more alienated 
from the Teutonic countries. 

The more intelligent and studious Americans, 
conscious of their pronounced ignorance of Euro- 
pean affairs and ideals, struggled to find in Euro- 
pean history and Gallic, British and Teuton writ- 
ings the real cause of the war. The publishing by 
the Governments of the various belligerent nations 
of their official documents bearing upon the open- 
ing of hostilities and the conditions which led to war 
were illuminating, and when they were read and 
compared analytically, Teuton Machiavellism was 
clearly revealed and it became evident that Ger- 
many and Austria had deliberately willed the war 
which was being ruthlessly conducted for world 
dominion. 

American students who went further and studied 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 349 

German writings, soon found positive and undeni- 
able proofs of the perversion of German morals in 
international affairs, and of the prevalent Hohen- 
zollern and Prussianized-German belief in im- 
moralism, ruthless might and Machiavellian false- 
ness. Such were the inevitable conclusions reached 
from a thorough study of the works of Treitschke, 
Bernhardi, Chamberlain, Clausewitz, Hartmann, 
Hasse, Lange, Lasaulx, Lasson, Nietzsche, Nip- 
pold, Reimer, Reventlow, Stirner, Tannenberg, 
Klaus Wagner, Wirth, etc., etc., coupled with the 
unbiased survey of history and official Teutonic 
documents, the German War Book, etc. 

To the Americans who knew the underlying cause 
of the Great War and the principles for which the 
Allies were fighting, our Government's attitude 
was both humiliating and deplorable. For thirty 
months after the German invasion of Belgium and 
Bethmann-Hollweg's declaration in the Reichstag 
of Germany's immoralism, and for twenty months 
after the Lusitania outrage, we persistently offered 
to grasp in friendship the blood-stained, mailed fist 
of the Hohenzollern-controlled Germany. This 
attitude suggested either our gross ignorance and 
gullibility, or our support of crime in expressing 
friendliness to the malefactor who, on August 4th, 
1914, should have been branded a hideous outlaw 
among nations. 

Germany in the spring of 1917 was the same 
Germany that repudiated an International Treaty 
and wantonly ravaged a small but heroic neighbor- 
nation in 1914; it was the same Germany that tor- 
pedoed without warning the unarmed liner, Lusi- 
tania, on May 7th, 1915, with a loss of 1,154 hves, 
of which 114 were Americans; it was the same Ger- 



350 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

many that had, since the commencement of hostili- 
ties, gloried in its defiance of the laws of nations 
and its absolute disregard of the dictates of com- 
mon hmnanity. The issue has ever been between 
autocracy with its militarism, on the one hand, and 
democracy, on the other; between international 
morality, law and order, culture, humanity, religion, 
truth, justice and rightness, on the one hand, and 
on the other international anarchy, chaos and the 
deification of brute power and jungle principles, 
with the doctrines of immoralism, Machiavellism, 
falseness, and injustice. The Great War has from 
the first been a fight between dynasties and peoples, 
between the conditions that make for human hap- 
piness, prosperity and peace, and those which make 
for constantly recurring war with the inevitable ac- 
companying human sorrow, adversity, suffering 
and death. It has been a fight between freedom 
and slavery, between the spirit of man and that 
usurping dynastic authority that has benumbed his 
mind and gripped with cruel fetters his very soul; 
between truth and falseness, between imiversal right 
and mahgnant wrong; between God and the devil. 
And yet in such a contest the official voice of 
America talked for years of a desire to end the war 
and obtain "Peace without victory." Every stu- 
dent of history knows full well that no peace can be 
lasting unless it is a just peace and a clean peace, 
and every student of the beliefs and ideals of 
European nations has known that a peace of negoti- 
ation, following the more or less victorious survival 
of Teutonic arms, would be but a truce that would 
carry within it the germ of future wars, which 
would sooner or later affect the Western World and 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 351 

our own land, and ultimately every continent and 
country of the earth. 

On August 4th, 1914, the future welfare of 
humanity and the peace and progress of the world 
demanded, once and for all, the destruction of 
Prussianized-German militarism. The principles 
at stake had not changed one iota on February 3rd, 
1917, when diplomatic relations were severed be- 
tween the United States and Germany, or, on April 
6th, 1917, when the United States declared war on 
Germany. These dates are merely significant in 
the history of the war as showing that at that time 
American public opinion was sufficiently aroused 
and cognizant of truth to demand governmental 
action. 

President Wilson in his War 3Iessage delivered 
before Congress on April 2nd, 1917, said, "From 
the very outset of the present war it (Germany) has 
filled our unsuspecting communities, and even our 
offices of government, with spies, and set criminal 
intrigues everywhere afoot against our national 
unity of counsel, our peace within and without, our 
industries and our commerce. Indeed, it is now 
evident that its spies were here even before the war 
began; and it is unhappily not a matter of con- 
jecture, but a fact proved in our courts of justice, 
that the intrigues which have more than once come 
perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocat- 
ing the industries of the country, have been carried 
on at the instigation, with the support and even 
under the personal direction of official agents of the 
Imperial German Government accredited to the 
Government of the United States." 

This is not only a statement of fact, but an 
acknowledgment that the American Government, 



352 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

during the first years of the war, was perilously 
ignorant of European conditions and European 
history, especially of the parts played by the 
Hohenzollern dynasty and their lieutenants, and of 
the unscrupulous and ruthless methods of Frederick 
the Great and Bismarck, which have been system- 
atically lauded and even deified by the Intellectuals 
and molders of public opinion in Germany. If 
there had been a practical student of history in the 
Government, and if our State Department had con- 
sisted of experienced men, well versed in foreign 
affairs and underlying conditions, the American 
Government would have known the truth in regard 
to Germany in 1914, and when hostilities broke out 
in Europe our Secret Service Department would 
have been working efficiently here in our national 
interest. 

When it became evident to the German Govern- 
ment that the plans of their General Staff to 
capture Paris, subjugate France and throw her out 
of the war, leaving Germany free to concentrate her 
forces on the Eastern Front and by swift, powerful 
strokes defeat Russia and force her to agree to a 
humiliating peace, had miscarried and their entire 
program had been upset by Belgium's heroic de- 
fense, by Britain's prompt assistance with her 
"contemptible little army," and by the Battle of the 
Marne — which will go down in history as the 
greatest decisive battle of all time — they became 
somewhat fearful of the effect of America's re- 
sources and industry upon the outcome of the war. 
The United States had declared her neutrahty, but 
Germany having been swept from the seas by 
Britain — whose geographical Island-setting made it 
incumbent upon her to be a maritime nation and 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 353 

capable of protecting herself and her commerce 
upon the seas, and whose very existence as a nation 
depended upon her navy, the Teuton people could 
not compete with the Triple Entente in the Ameri- 
can market, hence the German Government stirred 
up among its people a feeling of resentment against 
the United States because of our insistence upon our 
rights as a neutral nation to trade in supplies and 
munitions with any belligerent power which desired 
and could effect purchases in our markets. 

Our legal right to sell the product of our fields 
and factories to any belligerent power was never 
seriously questioned by Germany. She could not 
have consistently done so, for, as recently as the 
Balkan Wars of 1912-13, both Germany and Aus- 
tria sold munitions of war to the belligerents. "Their 
appeals to us in the present war were not to ob- 
serve international law, hut to revise it in their 
interest. And these appeals they tried to make on 
moral and humanitarian grounds. But upon 'the 
moral issue' involved, the stand taken by the United 
States was consistent with its traditional policy and 
with obvious common sense. For if, with all other 
neutrals, we refused to sell munitions to belligerents, 
we could never in time of a war of our own obtain 
munitions from neutrals, and the nation which had 
accumulated the largest reserve of war supplies in 
times of peace would be assured of victory. The 
militaristic state that invested its money in arsenals 
would be at a fateful advantage over the free people 
who invested their wealth in schools. To write into 
international law that neutrals should not trade in 
munitions would be to hand over the world to the 
rule of the nation with the largest armament fac- 



354 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

tories. Such a policy the United States could not 
accept." 

Germany virtuallj^ declared war on the United 
States and the principles for which our country 
stands, when she commenced to wage an absolutely 
unwarranted and ruthless war of aggression upon 
the peace-loving and democratic, free peoples of 
Europe. Germany substantially and more con- 
cretely declared war on the United States when, in- 
censed at our trading with her enemies, in January, 
1915, she let loose her thugs, assassins and sabotage 
guerrillas upon a peaceful and, at that time, most 
gullible people. Germany was prevented by British 
supremacy on the seas from becoming a real buyer 
in the American market, hence, according to the 
echt Deutsch psychologj% it was grossly unfair and 
a violation of the dictates of a neutrality of justice 
and honor to sell supplies and munitions to Ger- 
many's enemies, and Germany actuated by the doc- 
trines that "Necessity knows no law," "The end 
justifies the means," and "Failure only is immoral," 
proceeded to follow her usual unscrupulous Hohen- 
zollern course and carry war into neutral territory. 
Germany employed every available denizen of the 
underworld to carry out her nefarious schemes of 
crippling the industrial resources and transporta- 
tion facilities of this country, and by so doing sought 
to accomplish the double triumph of weakening and 
embarrassing the Allies and intimidating the United 
States. 

Let it be noted in passing that the German ob- 
session is so powerful and complete that even the 
Imperial Ambassador cheerfully accepts any role 
from the mouthpiece of His All-highest, the Em- 
peror of the Germans, to a contemptible originator 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 355 

and accomplice in diabolical underworld plots. In 
German Plots and Intrigues, an official pamphlet 
issued by our Government, we read, "The com- 
mander-in-chief of Germany's agents here was 
Count Johann von Bernstorff, Imperial German 
Ambassador to the United States. His coadjutor 
and able adviser during some months was Con- 
stantin Theodor Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian 
Ambassador. His chief lieutenants in the execu- 
tion of his plans were Captain Franz von Papen, 
military attache of the German Embassy, Captain 
Karl Boy-Ed, its naval attache, Dr. Heinrich F. 
Albert, commercial attache, and Wolf von Igel, 
who also had diplomatic status. Assisting this 
central group were many of the consuls of Ger- 
many and Austria-Hungary scattered over the 
United States, and beneath them were the rank and 
file of obscure servitors who carried out the plans 
conceived by the General Staff in Berlin and sent 
to the German Ambassador. Franz von Rintelen, 
although a leader in similar enterprises, was not a 
member of this band nor responsible to Ambassador 
von Bernstorff. He had a separate supply of funds 
and operated as a free lance." 

German "efficiency" expressed in schemes of 
wanton destruction with the accompanying ruthless 
murder of innocents, did not believe in putting "all 
her eggs in one basket." She resorted to separate 
systems, chains and organizations for the carrying 
out of her hellish vandalism and demolition of 
American industry and transportation facilities, so 
that if any one link should destroy a chain there 
were other systems at work unaffected. The much 
that we know today of German plots and con- 
spiracies through our law courts and published re- 



356 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

ports of our Secret Service men are probably only 
an insignificant part of the outrages perpetrated in 
America for which the German Government is di- 
rectly and criminally responsible; yet after a year 
of heinous crimes of wanton destruction, void of all 
consideration for human life, the German Govern- 
ment had the audacious effrontery to send to the 
United States in December, 1915, the following au- 
thorized official lie for publication in our press: 
"The German Government has naturally never 
knowingly accepted the support of any person, 
group of persons, society or organization seeking to 
promote the cause of Germany in the United 
States by illegal acts, by counsel of violence, by con- 
travention of law, or by any means whatever that 
could offend the American people in the pride of 
their own authority." 

On November 2nd, 1914, the following circular 
was issued by the ( German ) General Headquarters 
to the military representatives at the Russian and 
French Fronts, as well as in Italy and Norway: 

"In all branch establishments of German banking 
houses in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, China, and 
the United States special military accounts have been 
opened for special war necessities. Main head- 
quarters authorizes you to use these credits to an un- 
limited extent for the purpose of destroying factories, 
workshops, camps, and the most important centres of 
military and civil supply belonging to the enemy. In 
addition to the incitement of labor troubles, measures 
must be taken for the damaging of engines and ma- 
chinery plants, the destruction of vessels carrying 
war material to enemy countries, the burning of 
stocks of raw materials and finished goods, and the 
depriving of large industrial centres of electric 
power, fuel and food. Special agents, who will be 
placed at your disposal, will supply you with the 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 357 

necessary means for effecting explosions and fires, 
as well as with a list of people in the country under 
your supervision who are willing to undertake the 
task of destruction. 

"(Signed) Dr. E. Fischer." 

The German and Austrian Ambassadors through 
coercion and intimidation, as well as by arguments 
appealing to their "conscience," sought to drive 
the workmen from occupations that were furnishing 
supplies to the AlHes. The Austrian Government, 
reinforced these efforts bj'^ circulating through the 
foreign-language press a proclamation which 
threatened with a penalty of ten to twenty years' 
imprisonment, all subjects who, after being en- 
gaged on work beneficial to the enemies of their 
fatherland, should return to their native land; and 
Captain von Papen sent out a circular letter of 
similar import with reference to natives of Ger- 
many. 

Strikes which were planned to have a destructive 
effect upon American industry were systematically 
fomented in all parts of the country by means of 
an organization regularly financed by the Teutonic 
Governments. Ambassador Dumba, in a letter to 
his Foreign Office, thus expressed their fundamen- 
tal purpose : 

"It is my impression that we can disorganize and 
hold up for months, if not entirely prevent the manu- 
facture of munitions in Bethlehem and the Middle 
West, which in the opinion of the German Military 
Attache, is of importance and amply outweighs the 
comparatively small expenditure of money involved." 

The most comprehensive and successful effort to 
provoke strikes was made by the Labor's National 



358 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Peace Council, an organization financed by the 
German Government through Franz von Rintelen, 
who came to the United States early in April, 
1915, and who is now in a Federal penitentiary; the 
amount of money at Rintelen's disposal was stated 
by the treasurer of the fund to be $508,000, which 
amount was transmitted from Germany through 
the Hamburg- American Line. When we con- 
sider the methods employed by Rintelen to attain 
the ends which Germany desired and expressed 
as willing to pay for — even to the amount of over 
a million dollars to start a stevedore's strike — it is 
amusing to read the following resolutions adopted 
among others at the first meeting of Labor's 
National Peace Council held on June 22nd, 1915: 

Resolved, By the representatives of labor in Peace 
Congress assembled in the City of Washington, that 
an organization be and is hereby established, to be 
known as Labor's National Peace Council, having for 
its purpose the establishment and maintenance of 
universal peace by all honorable means. 

The President of the Council was Congressman 
Frank Buchanan, who wrote that the object of 
such an organization "was to implant in the hearts 
and minds of its members the ethics of humanity 
and the sacredness of human hfe," and he affirmed 
that as long as the people whom he served (in 
reality the HohenzoUerns and militaristic Pan- 
Germans) "continue to be united in their belief that 
progress and prosperity are dependent upon re- 
ligious observance of the scriptural admonition 
'And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares 
and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall 
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more,' just so long shall I continue 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 359 

to rap at the door of President Wilson's private 
chamber to secure admittance for a delegation of 
workers who not only desire peace at home, but 
peace abroad as well." 

Along with Rintelen, Lamar, Martin, Monett, 
ex-Congressman Fowler and others, all of whom 
had assisted in the work of the Council, Buchanan 
was indicted by the Grand Jury on December 28th, 
1915, for "conspiracy to restrain the manufacture, 
transportation and export of munitions of war." 
Among the means employed to accomplish these 
purposes the indictment specifies the instigation 
of strikes by solicitation, by the dissemination of 
letters, circulars and newspaper articles, by bribery 
and by the distribution of money to labor leaders. 
Rintelen, Lamar and Martin were found guilty, 
and on May 21st, 1917, were each sentenced to one 
year's imprisonment. The indictment against 
Monett was dismissed and the jury disagreed as to 
the others. 

Among the organizations formed in America in 
the interests of the militaristic German Govern- 
ment, was the American Embargo Conference. 
That it was recognized as a valuable tool of the 
German Government and probably received money 
from Berlin is shown by the following telegram 
(Sept. 15, 1916) from Count von Bernstorff to the 
German Foreign office: 

"The Embargo Conference, in regard to whose 
earlier fruitful cooperation Dr. Hale can give in- 
formation, is just about to enter upon a vigorous 
campaign to secure a majority in both houses of 
Congress favorable to Germany and request further 
support. There is no possibility of our being com- 
promised. Request telegraphic reply." 



360 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

This Embargo Conference forwarded to Ameri- 
can voters over five million telegram^, demanding 
an embargo on munitions of war, and on a fixed 
date 250,000 of these identical messages poured into 
Washington. The Embargo Conference appar- 
ently served the German Government well, for 
Count von Bernstorff, in the following telegram to 
Berlin, requests $50,000 to be spent either on this or 
on a similar organization aiming to force pro-Ger- 
man policies on Congress: 

"I request authority to pay up to $50,000 (fifty 
thousand dollars) in order, as on former occasions, 
to influence Congress through the organization you 
know of, which can perhaps prevent war. I am be- 
ginning in the meantime to act accordingly. 

"In the above circumstances a public official Ger- 
man declaration in favor of Ireland is highly de- 
sirable, in order to gain the support of the Irish in- 
fluence here." 

The actual bribery of Congressmen apparently 
was intended by Franz von Rintelen. According to 
Meloy, he supplied Lamar with money to be used 
in procuring the passage of resolutions by Con- 
gress which should embarrass the Government in 
the conduct of its relations with Germany. "Both 
Congressman Buchanan and ex-Congressman 
Fowler received money for their assistance in 
attempting to bribe Congress. That such was Rin- 
telen's intention was also stated explicitly by George 
Plochman, Treasurer of the Transatlantic Trust 
Company, where Rintelen kept his accounts." 

Germany through its agents in the United States 
endeavored to embroil our country with Mexico and 
Japan. It was believed in Berlin that if America 
could be driven to war with Mexico the shipments 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 361 

of munitions and supplies to Europe would cease. 
In Mexico Germany had agents assiduously at 
work preaching that the United States aspired to 
subjugate JVIexico, but that our great nation was 
impotent, unable to even prepare for war, and that 
Japan is America's natural enemy and the logical 
ally of any nation that would wage war on the 
United States. 

The culmination of Germany's attempt to pro- 
voke war between the United States and Mexico 
is the following essentially stupid telegram sent by 
Secretary Zimmermann of the German Foreign 
Office, January 19th, 1917, to Count von Bernstorff 
for transmission to Heinrich von Eckhardt, the 
German Ambassador in Mexico: 

"On the first of February we intend to begin sub- 
marine warfare unrestricted. In spite of this, it is 
our intention to endeavor to keep neutral the United 
States of America. If this attempt is not successful, 
we propose an alliance on the following basis with 
Mexico: That we shall make war together and to- 
gether make peace. We shall give general financial 
support, and it is understood that Mexico is to re- 
conquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas and 
Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. 
You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico 
of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it 
is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with 
the United States, and suggest that the President of 
Mexico, on his own initiative, should communicate 
with Japan suggesting adherence at once to this 
plan ; at the same time, offer to mediate between Ger- 
many and Japan, 

"Please call to the attention of the President of 
Mexico that the employment of ruthless submarine 
warfare now promises to compel England to make 
peace in a few months." 



362 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

This cablegram is typically Prussian in that it 
expresses an ignorance of foreign peoples that is 
rich in humor. When this message to the German 
Ambassador in Mexico was published to the world 
and acknowledged by Zimmermann, it led to the 
Foreign Secretary's disgrace and retirement, not 
because of the absurdity of it, nor due to its 
unethical and outrageous suggestions, but simply 
because he had bungled in his confidential diplo- 
macy and had been driven from the darkness in 
which Prussianism must work, into the light. Ger- 
man "ethics" hold that only success is deserving of 
praise, and failure merits disgrace, and this abso- 
lutely without regard to the means employed or the 
lightness or justice of the case. 

Germany not only struggled in America to close 
up munition factories by strikes, or destroy them by 
explosions, to buy up products and plants and 
enact hysterical legislation favorable to the Teuton 
cause, but they attempted to cripple our transporta- 
tion facilities and destroy vessels leaving our ports. 
One project carried out under the direction of 
Captain von Papen and Wolf von Igel consisted of 
placing incendiary bombs in the holds of vessels 
which, at a predetermined time, would explode. 
The shells of these bombs were manufactured on the 
S. S. Frederick der Grosse of the North German 
Lloyd Line, and were taken to the Laboratory of 
Dr. Walter T. Scheele, a German Chemist, in 
Hoboken, who filled them with combustibles. Our 
Secret Service men have found that 300 to 400 
bombs were produced in this way, through this one 
channel of activity, and explosive fires were started 
by them on 33 ships sailing from New York alone. 
Many of the conspirators in this one of many 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 363 

cliques were arrested and are now in jail, serving, 
however, comparatively light sentences. Many other 
plots for destroying shipping by placing bombs 
hidden in fuel-coal, concealed in innocent looking 
freight cases or attached to the hulls of vessels, have 
been revealed by our Secret Service Department on 
both the xltlantic and Pacific Coasts. 

Germany also used her Ambassador and his staff 
in the United States to wage war on Canada. The 
following two cables are significant: 

"January 3. (Secret.) General Staflf desires 
energetic action in regard to proposed destruction of 
Canadian Pacific Railway at several points with a 
view to complete and protracted interruption of 
traffic. Captain Boehm, who is known on your side 
and shortly returning, has been given instructions. 
Inform the Military Attache and provide the neces- 
sary funds. "(Signed) Zimmermann." 

"January 26. For Military Attache. You can ob- 
tain particulars as to persons suitable for carrying 
on Sabotage in the United States and Canada from 
the following persons: (1) Joseph McGarrity, Phila- 
delphia, Penn. (2) John P. Keating, Michigan 
Avenue, Chicago. (3) Jeremiah O'Leary, 16 Park 
Row, New York. One and two are absolutely re- 
liable and discreet. No. 3 is reliable, but not always 
discreet. These persons were indicated by Sir Roger 
Casement. In the United States sabotage can be 
carried out in every kind of factory for supplying 
munitions of war. Railway embankments and bridges 
must not be touched. Embassy must in no circum- 
stances be compromised. Similar precautions must 
be taken in regard to Irish pro-German propaganda. 
(Signed) Representative of General Staff." 

Von der Goltz, Capt. Hans Tauscher (Ameri- 
can agent for Krupp and other German firms), 
Capt. von Papen (Mihtary Attache to the United 



364 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

States), Von Igel, Fritzen, Tuchendler and Covani 
were indicted for conspiracy to set on foot a mili- 
tary enterprise against Great Britain, and Consul- 
General Bopp of San Francisco — a high German 
official accredited to the U. S. Government — was 
convicted of plotting to destroy bridges and tmi- 
nels in Canada. Capt. von Papen and Capt. Boy- 
Ed being attached to the German Embassy were 
recalled by Germany on December 10th, 1915, at 
the request of our Department of State. The 
Steamship offices of the Hamburg- American Line 
in New York became most dangerous centers of 
criminal intrigue maintained in the United States 
by the German Goverimient. Paul Koenig of the 
Hamburg-American Line also attempted, like 
Von der Goltz, to blow up the Welland Canal. 
There is documentary evidence to show that the 
German Embassy in the United States financed 
Albert Kaltschmidt of Detroit in his plans and 
attempts to blow up factories, railroads, tunnels and 
barracks, and Werner Horn who partially suc- 
ceeded in blowing up the International Bridge on 
the Grand Trunk Railway at Vanceboro, Maine. 
The German Government in an endeavor to get 
German reservists, living in America, back to Ger- 
many, and to send German agents, then in Amer- 
ica, to allied countries as spies, etc., maintained an 
office in New York City, directed by Captain von 
Papen, where passports were forged by wholesale. 
German agents in the United States also endeav- 
ored to give military aid to their country by sending 
coal and other supplies to German warships which 
were raiding commerce in both the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans. Such actions were a violation of 
American neutrality, and in order to evade the law 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 365 

the conspirators took false oaths before Federal 
officials concerning the ownership of vessels, the 
nature of their cargoes, and their destination. The 
Hamburg- American Line, through its high officials 
in New York, repeatedly deceived and defrauded 
the United States by procuring false manifests. 
This matter was handled under the direction of 
Captain Boy-Ed, Naval Attache of the German 
Embassy, and the evidence of the officials and 
employees of steamship lines in our courts proved 
that fraud, forgery and perjury were quite gener- 
ally committed under the direction of officials of 
the German Government who were protected by 
the diplomatic privileges which all civilized nations 
consider sacred. 

Perjury was also employed in a notable instance 
to justify Germany's conduct. When the passen- 
ger liner Lusitania was ruthlessly sunk by a Ger- 
man submarine on May 7th, 1915, with its great 
load of non-combatants, the German Government 
and its ambassador in America asserted that she 
was in law and fact a ship of war, because laden 
with ammunition and armed with four guns. In 
order to prove this statement, Ambassador von 
Bernstorff sent to the Department of State four 
affidavits swearing that the Lusitania was armed. 
Three of these were worthless as testimony, and the 
fourth had been procured by Paul Koenig, of the 
Hamburg-American Line, from Gustav Stahl, a 
German reservist. Federal officials knew that 
the Lusitania was not armed and that Stahl must 
have sworn falsely. He was accordingly tried for 
perjury, confessed his guilt, and was sentenced to 
eighteen months in the Federal Penitentiary at 
Atlanta. 



366 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

The German Government encouraged the officers 
of the S. S. Prinz Eitel Frederick and the S. S. 
Kronprinz Wilhelm to violate their oaths of 
parole. These men, interned in this country, had 
pledged their word of honor not to escape from the 
jurisdiction of the United States and had accord- 
ingly been allowed every hberty. 

Germany honeycombed the United States with 
spies, information bureaus and camouflaged intel- 
ligence offices, in order to obtain all possible infor- 
mation in regard to what America was doing for 
the benefit of Germany's enemies, and, in conjunc- 
tion with these offices and their organizations, the 
German Government conducted a vigorous and 
criminal campaign to retard and destroy, and this 
by any possible means and without any regard to 
law, morality, honor, and without any consideration 
of human life or the rights of the citizens of a land 
which had declared its neutrality and was faithfully 
maintaining it to the letter and in the full spirit 
as required by International Law. 

Germany endeavored to incite a revolution in 
India, and financed Indian plotters operating in 
the United States. The following communica- 
tion names the agents of the Berlin Committee in 
the United States and also attests the connection 
of the German Government with the Revolution- 
ary movement: "Berlin, 4th February, 1916. 
"To the German Embassy, Washington: 

"In the future all Indian affairs are to be handled 
through the Committee to be formed by Dr. Chakra- 
berty. Dhirenda Sarkar and Heramba Lai Gupta, 
who have meanwhile been expelled from Japan, will 
cease to be independent representatives of the Indian 
Independence Committee existing here. 

"ZiMMERMANN." 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 367 

Chakraberty, when examined by an agent of our 
Department of Justice, admitted receiving about 
$60,000 from Wolf von Igel through a Dr. 
Sekunna. This money, he affirmed, was loaned by 
the German Government. Under German lead- 
ership and financed by German money, other 
groups of conspirators in America planned inva- 
sions of the dominions of Germany's enemies, and 
the German Embassy cooperated with Irish revo- 
lutionists and did everything possible in the United 
States to incite, encourage and support rebellion 
in Ireland as well as India and Egj^pt in an attempt 
to paralyze or at least weaken the military strength 
of Britain. 

Wliile Germany was plotting in the United 
States against her enemies, she was guilty of foster- 
ing conspiracies and intrigues against us in Mexico, 
Cuba, Haiti, San Domingo, etc., as well as organ- 
izing forces in our own land to work against the 
highest interests of our countr^\ The U. S. Gov- 
ernment was compelled to demand the removal of 
the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador and the Ger- 
man Attaches, Boy-Ed and Von Papen, because of 
the clear proof of their guilt, but when they were 
removed the United States received no apologies 
from Germany or Austria and the dismissed rep- 
resentatives of the Teutonic diplomatic staffs 
received no reprimand. They had acted under 
instructions and their only fault lay in being found 
out. 

Much money was spent in the United States by 
the German Government in the purchase of news- 
papers and for propaganda purposes. Every at- 
tainable channel useful in molding public opinion 
was utilized to the fullest possible degree, and the 



368 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

German Embassy used millions of dollars in their 
underground work, supporting every movement 
that would be favorable to Germany, and this 
without regard to honor, law, or to the well-being 
of the United States. 

It has been well said: "Of all the nations now 
extant, the Germans have spun the widest and 
stickiest web of intrigue. Lift a stone anywhere 
in the world and a blood-sucking von Igel, a veno- 
mous von Luxburg, a scaly Bolo wriggles to cover. 
The urbane von Bernstorff, the ridiculous Zimmer- 
mann, the austere von Jagow, are successively 
exposed in the role of master spiders. High Ger- 
mans and low Germans, all species and sub-species, 
are implicated in the vile business." 



The following extracts from the Diary of Pre- 
war Villainy, generally believed to have been car- 
ried on by German agents in America and the most 
important of which have been clearly proved to 
have been inspired by the German Government, 
represent in the aggregate convincing reasons, aside 
from the great principles involved, for the entry of 
the United States into the world war: 

On January 18th, 1915, the Roebling Works at Trenton, 
N. J., were blown up. On January 28th the American Sailing 
ship, TVm. P. Frye, was sunk by a raider in the South Atlantic, 
and on January 29th the Steamship Preston was destroyed. 

On February 13th, 1915, the powder plant at Haskell, N. J., 
was blown up. On February 19th and 23rd, our Steamships 
Evelyn and Carib, engaged in peaceful pursuits, were de- 
stroyed with loss of life, apparently by German mines in the 
North Sea. On February 10th the German Government is 
informed that it will be held to "strict accovmtability" if any 
American rights on the high seas are violated by the German 
proclamation of a War Zone and their threat to sink ships 
unwarned within the zone. In this month the Boy-Ed pass- 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 369 

port frauds which had been practiced since July, 1914, were 
publicly exposed. 

In March and April, 1915, several ships were destroyed 
in or leaving American ports, and the S. S. Greenbrier was lost 
in the North Sea. 

In May, 1915, four powder plants were blown up and the 
Oil Steamer Gulflight was torpedoed off the Scilly Islands, 
with loss of life. On May 7th, the S. S. Lusitania was sunk 
with great loss of life, and on May 13th, President Wilson 
addressed his first Lusitania note to the German Government, 
to which the Germans replied under date of May 28th, defend- 
ing their ruthless and unprecedented act. 

In June, 1915, the attempt of the German Government to 
buy the Bethlehem Steel Company was exposed; also the trick 
of Ambassador von BernstorfF, whereby he smuggled Dr. 
Meyer across the Ocean. A powder plant was blown up and 
the Schooner Seaconnet sunk off Yarmouth. On June 9th, Mr. 
Wilson addressed his second Lusitania note to the German 
Government. 

In July, 1915, two powder plants were wrecked, three ships 
discovered with bombs aboard, three vessels burned at sea and 
the freighter Leelanaw torpedoed off the Orkney Islands. Our 
Government was compelled to take over the wireless plant at 
Sayville which was being used for German purposes in viola- 
tion of our neutrality. A bomb exploded in the White House. 
Frank Holt, a German sympathizer, influenced by German 
propaganda, shot J. P. Morgan because his Banking House 
was assisting in the procuring of munitions and supplies in 
America for the Allied Governments. German agents at- 
tempted to bribe American labor leaders, and strikes were 
caused by German agitators. On July 21st, Mr. Wilson con- 
tinued his unsatisfactory diplomatic correspondence with the 
German Government and dispatched his third Lusitania note. 

In August, 1915, four plants and two trains of supplies were 
blown up. Ambassador von Bernstorff and Capt. Boy-Ed 
were active in a plot to embroil us with Mexico. On August 
19th, the S. S. Arabic was sunk with the loss of many lives, 
including some Americans, and the indignation which followed 
this wanton act of torpedoing a Transatlantic Liner without 
warning, resulted in Ambassador Bernstorff's giving an oral 
pledge for his Government that hereafter German submarines 
would not sink "Liners" without warning. 

In September, 1915, several vessels bound westward were 
burned. The Sailing Ship Vincent was sunk off Cape Orloff 
Ambassador Dumba of Austria was recalled at our request. 



370 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

In October, 1915, three powder plants were burned, and a 
warehouse in Seattle, containing munitions destined for Russia, 
was destroyed. Several German spies with explosives were 
captured near New York. 

In November, 1915, many ships and plants were blown up. 
The machine shop of the Bethlehem Steel Co, was burned, 
destroying 800 big guns. A rifle plant was burned at Chester 
and a barbed wire plant destroyed. The Red Cross was used 
as a cloak to conceal the forwarding of important documents 
to Germany. 

December, 1915, was a month of destruction and death. 
Thirty-one lives were lost in one day, and two days later the 
Hopewell fire occurred, with the loss of three million dollars. 
Three vessels were sunk. Officials of the Hamburg-American 
Line were convicted for fraud, and Capt. Boy-Ed and Capt. 
von Papen, of the German Embassy, ordered to leave the 
country because of their leadership in plots and conspiracies. 

In January, 1916, ships were burned in or soon after leav- 
ing American ports, and munition plants were blown up — 
six plants in one week — with loss of life. 

On February 9th and 10th several plants were destroyed, 
and another on the 13th; and just to make it good measure, 
they sank a ship. On the 15th thirty-seven lighters and 
three steamsliips were sunk. In Bridgeport there was a four 
hundred and fifty thousand dollar fire. In four other cities 
plants were blown up and several killed. The German plot 
to have reservists invade Canada from the United States was 
exposed. Ships leaving South America became German sea- 
raiders. 

In March, 1916, a plant was destroyed at Niagara and 
later two steamers. On March 24th the passenger vessel 
S. S. Sussex was torpedoed and sunk with Americans aboard. 

In April, 1916, a plant at South Bethlehem was burned. 
Several Germans were indicted for plots, conspiracies and 
lawlessness. A plot to cripple all self-interned German liners, 
was discovered, but most of the contemplated damage was done 
before it could be prevented. Germany cynically tells the 
U. S. on April 10th that she cannot be sure whether she sank 
the Sussex or not, although admitting that one of her sub- 
marines was active close to the place of disaster. On April 
18th, the U. S. Government threatened Germany with breach of 
diplomatic relations if Sussex or similar incidents are repeated. 

In May, 1916, four American plants were destroyed and 
many men killed. On May 4th Germany grudgingly made the 
promise that ships would not be torpedoed without warning. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 371 

June was comparatively uneventful^ but in July, 1916, 
following three minor explosions with loss of life, the great 
Black Tom explosion occurred, with the loss of about twenty- 
five million dollars. On July 9th the German Mercantile Sub- 
marine Deutschland arrived at Baltimore, Md., from Bremen 
with a cargo of dyestufF. This was the pioneer German sub- 
marine to make a trans-Atlantic voyage. 

In August two plants were blown up, and in September, 
1916, Germany tried to embroil us with Britain through ship- 
ping. 

In October, 1916, a German submarine appears off the 
American Coast and sinks the passenger steamer Stephana 
(Oct. 8th) with many American passengers — vacationists re- 
turning from Newfoundland — on board. The loss of life 
would have been certain had not American naval vessels been 
near at hand to save the passengers and crew. The American 
steamship Lanao was torpedoed off the Portuguese Coast and 
the German submarine Deutschland reached New London on 
its second trip and then returned to Germany with nickel and 
crude rubber. 

On November 8th, 1916, the S. S. Columbian, of 8,579 tons, 
was torpedoed off Cape Ortegal, and on November 28th the 
S. S. Chemung, of 3,032 tons, suffered a similar fate off Cape 
de Gata. 

In December, 1916, occurred the trial of Franz Bopp, the 
German Consul conspirator in California, and President Wil- 
son appealed to all belligerents to discuss peace. 

In January, 1917, the Canadian Car and Foundry Works 
(American) were blown up, with a loss of 17 lives and about 
sixteen million dollars. This was followed by the explosion 
at Haskell. 

The German endeavors to obtain a victorious 
peace in December, 1916, and January, 1917, were 
accompanied by subtle threats to all neutral 
nations. Our Government was given to under- 
stand that unless the Neutrals used their influence 
to bring the war to an end on terms dictated by 
Berlin, Germany and her allies would consider 
themselves henceforth free from aU obligations to 
respect the rights of neutrals. Kaiser Wilhelm II. 
ordered the neutral powers to exert pressure on the 



372 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Entente to bring the war to an abrupt end or to 
beware of the consequences. 

The German Government officially notified the 
United States (Jan. 31, 1917) that "from Febru- 
ary 1, 1917, sea traffic will be stopped with every 
available weapon and without further notice." This 
meant the renewal of ruthless submarine opera- 
tions in violation of the pledge given after the sink- 
ing of the S. S. Sussex, and which read, "Merchant 
ships, both within and without the area declared a 
naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning 
and without saving human lives unless the ship 
attempts to escape or offers resistance." It is inter- 
esting in this connection to note that the German 
Chancellor in announcing the repudiation of all his 
solemn pledges in the Reichstag, on January 31st, 
frankly admitted that this policy involved "ruth- 
lessness" toward neutrals. "When the most ruth- 
less methods are considered the best calculated to 
lead us to victory and to a swift victory . . . 
they must be employed. . . . The moment has 
now arrived. Last August" (when he, as he 
himself admits, was allowing the American people 
to believe that in response to its protest he had 
laid aside such ruthless methods) "the time was 
not yet ripe, but to-day the moment has come 
when, with the greatest prospect of success, we 
can undertake this enterprise." In brief, under 
the guise of friendship and the cloak of false prom- 
ises, the German Government had been steadily 
preparing to launch this attack as soon as she was 
adequately equipped to carry forward and execute 
her desire, notwithstanding the assurances given to 
the United States. 

Possibly the most glaring instance of German 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 373 

official effrontery was the permission given regular 
American passenger vessels to continue their trans- 
Atlantic sailings undisturbed after Feb. 1, 1917, 
provided : 

(1) The port of destination is Falmouth. 

(2) A certain course as specified be followed enter- 

ing and leaving port. 

(3) The vessels are clearly marked as prescribed, 

(4) One vessel only to reach Falmouth each week, 

and that on Sunday, departing therefrom on 
Wednesday. 

(5) The U. S. Government to guarantee that no con- 

traband (according to the German list) is 
carried on these vessels. 

On Feb. 3rd Count von Bernstorff was handed 
his passports and Ambassador Gerard was recalled 
from Berhn, and on the same day the American 
Steamship Housatonic was ruthlessly torpedoed 
off the Scilly Islands. 

In all history there is no record in the affairs 
of nations of such prolonged patience, forbear- 
ance and concihatoriness as was displayed by the 
American Government in its dealings with the 
unscrupulous German Government during the 
period of from Aug. 1, 1914, to Feb. 3, 1917, and 
particularly during the years 1915, 1916, and the 
month of January, 1917, when it was evident to all 
observing and thinking people that the German 
Government, representative of a despotic and heart- 
less mihtaristic nation, held the United States in 
absolute contempt, set her laws as well as Interna- 
tional Laws at naught and would not hesitate at 
anything, no matter how horrible and unthinkable 
to law-abiding people, if it would prove of some 
benefit to the cause of Germany. 



374 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

A German plot was discovered in February, 1917, to sink 
vessels in the Channel and close the Port of New York, The 
Panama Canal was threatened. The Zimmermann note which 
fell into the hands of the U. S. Government on January 19th, 
1917, was published. This ridiculous note informed the Ger- 
man Minister to Mexico of the German Government's inten- 
tion to repudiate the Sussex pledge, and instructs him to offer 
the Mexican Government New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, if 
Mexico will join with Germany, and if possible with Japan, in 
waging war on the United States. 

In February, 1917, the sailing vessel Lyman M. Lata was 
torpedoed oiF Sardinia, and in March the American steamships 
Algonquin, Vigilancia, City of Memphis, Illinois, and Heald- 
tqn, and the sailing vessel Phineas W. Sprague were torpedoed, 
with an aggregate loss of 36 lives. On March 12th, the U. S. 
Government issued orders to place armed guards on our mer- 
chant vessels. 

On April 1st, the American Freighter Aztec was torpedoed 
off Brest, with a loss of 28 lives, and before the month was 
over six other American vessels had been sent to the bottom, 
the loss of the S. S. Vacuum, torpedoed off the North Coast of 
Ireland, being accompanied with a loss of 21 lives. 

On April 6th, 1917, war was declared by the United States 
on Germany ; diplomatic relations were broken off with Austria 
on April 8th, but war was not declared on Austria until 
December 7th, 1917. 

In the. debate in the House of Representatives, 
April 6th, Mr. G. E. Foss, of Illinois, in his indict- 
ment of German policies, gave a compact summary 
of the grievances of the United States and why the 
American people were driven into the war. 

"As a reward for our neutrality what have we received at 
the hand's of Wilhelm 11? 

"He has set the torch of the incendiary to our factories, our 
workshops, our ships, and our wharves. 

"He has laid the bomb of the assassin in our mimition plants 
and the holds of our ships. 

"He has sought to corrupt our manhood with a selfish dream 
of peace when there is no peace. 

"He has wilfully butchered our citizens on the high seas. 

"He has destroyed our commerce. 

"He seeks to terrorize us with his devilish policy of fright- 
fulness. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 375 

"He has violated every canon of international decency and 
set at naught every solemn treaty and every precept of inter- 
national law. 

"He has plunged the world into the maddest orgy of blood, 
rapine, and murder which history records. 

"He has intrigued against our peace at home and abroad. 

"He seeks to destroy our civilization. Patience is no longer 
a virtue, further endurance is cowardice, submission to Prus- 
sian demands is slavery." 

In The Study of the Great War, by Prof. Sam- 
uel B. Harding, issued as an official pamphlet by 
the Committee on Public Information, our reasons 
for entering the war are stated as : 

1. The renewal by Germany of her submarine warfare in a 
more violent form than ever before, contrary to the assurance 
given us in the spring of 1916. 

2. Because of the conviction, unwillingly reached, that the 
German Government had repudiated wholesale the commonly 
accepted principles of law and humanity and was "running 
amuck" as an International desperado, who could be made to 
respect law and right only by forcible and violent means. 

3. Because of the conviction that Prussian militarism and 
autocracy, let loose in the world, disturbed the balance of 
power and threatened to destroy the international equilibrium. 
They were a menace to all nations save those allied with Ger- 
many; and the menace must be overthrown. 

4. Because of a gradual shaping of the conflict into a war 
between democratic nations, on the one hand, and autocratic 
nations on the other. 

5. Because of the conviction that our traditional policy of 
isolation and aloofness was outgrown and outworn, and could 
no longer be maintained, in the face of the growing interde- 
pendence which is one of the leading characteristics of this 
modern age. 

6. Because of the menace to the Monroe Doctrine and to 
our own independence. 

These "reasons" indicate in no uncertain manner 
that in the summer of 1914 neither the Government 
nor the leaders of the people of the United States 
knew what Germany was or what her ideals, am- 
bitions and methods were. Our mental isolation 



376 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

was as complete as our geological and physical, 
and it seems as if we harbored a sort of moral 
indifference and isolation until we became con- 
vinced that the Atlantic was not the impassable 
water barrier to a determined European foe that 
it had been imagined to be, and that our own 
country was threatened if the lawless militarism, 
which had wantonly attacked and ravaged certain 
European peoples in its passion for conquest was 
not vanquished by the superior weight of resources 
and force of arms of the world's peace-loving and 
democratic nations working in concert. 

History will record that it took the United 
States 32 months to learn that the German Govern- 
ment repudiated "the commonly accepted prin- 
ciples of law and humanity," and that Germany 
represented militarism and autocracy that were a 
menace to peace-loving nations, a fact which Bel- 
gium learned by bitter anguish on the first day of 
the ruthless invasion of her territory by German 
hordes, and that was officially announced to the 
world by the Imperial Chancellor Bethmann-Holl- 
weg on Aug. 4th, 1914, when he declared in the 
Reichstag, "Necessity knows no law," and pro- 
claimed to mankind that the German pseudo-phil- 
osophy of Immoralism, Machiavelhsm, and Brute 
Force, unbelievable to spiritually minded people, 
was, after all, the real, official belief of the Hohen- 
zollern-controlled, German Government. 

It is ridiculous to say that the Great War be- 
came gradually a conflict between democracy and 
autocracy. The underlying principles that caused 
the war remained constant and the causes and issues 
involved were the same on April 6, 1917, as they 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 377 

were on Aug. 4, 1914; the warring ideals had not 
changed one iota. 

The evolution had occurred in the American 
mind, but not in the goals or aspirations or mental 
attitudes of the belligerent European nations. 
America saw rather dimly in 1917, and much more 
clearly in 1918, what European leaders in thought 
and students of history and of nations perceived 
with distinct definiteness in August, 1914, or even 
long before that eventful period. 

Our traditional policy of isolation and aloofness 
has had much merit. It has kept us from en- 
tangling alliances and from senseless meddling in 
the selfish affairs of other nations, but it has also 
kept us very ignorant of European International 
affairs. American official comment on the Great 
War since the commencement of hostilities in 
August, 1914, proves our colossal ignorance and 
our delicious and unconscious ignorance of our 
ignorance. The conmiunications of our Govern- 
ment and the addresses of our Executive and 
officials during the period of the Great War, if 
collected and studied, would fittingly illustrate the 
evolution or development of the American mind, or 
at least of the Governmental mind in its quest for 
truth, a truth that was well known to the leaders of 
the democratic peoples of Europe long before Ger- 
many plunged the world into the most cruel and the 
most senseless war of all time. Truth does not 
change, but our knowledge and appreciation of it 
has undergone in America a tremendous change in 
a period of a little over four years. 

America entered the world war in April, 1917, 
because at that time the Government of the United 
States had become convinced that Germany was 



378 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

what Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy knew her 
to be, and had known her to be for years, and what 
she herself had declared herself to be at the Hague 
Peace Conferences, when she declined to enter with 
Britain into any Peace or reduction of armament 
treaties; when she tried on several occasions to 
bully France into national impotence; when she 
refused to enter into any arbitration treaty, or even 
a "cooling off" Brj^an covenant with the U. S., and 
when she branded international treaties as "mere 
scraps of paper," and not only violated the neu- 
trality of Belgium, but ruthlessly ravaged the land 
and systematically practised terrorism and devilish 
atrocities upon the people such as the modern world 
had generally considered unthinkable and humanly 
impossible. 

In President Wilson's war message of April 2, 
1917, he said, "We enter the war only when we are 
clearly forced into it, because there is no other 
means of defending our rights." Hence war was 
not declared against guilty Austria-Hungary until 
Dec. 7, 1917, and war has never been declared 
against the blood-thirstj^ assassinating Turkey, or 
against the coldly-calculating, dynastically-driven 
Bulgaria, that fought for loot, but never for prin- 
ciple. "Our motive will not be revenge or the vic- 
torious assertion of the physical might of the nation, 
but only the vindication of right, of human right. 

. . Our object ... is to vindicate the 
principles of peace and justice in the life of the 
world as against selfish and autocratic power. . . . 
We are glad ... to fight thus for the ulti- 
mate peace of the world and the right of nations, 
great and small, and the privilege of men every- 
where to choose their way of life and obedience. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 379 

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its 
peace must be planted upon the tested foundation 
of political liberty." 

But all this was said thirty-two months after 
democratic France and neutral, peace-loving Bel- 
gium had been wantonly attacked, and Britain, as 
a champion of freedom, International Law and 
honor, had acted; it was said twenty-nine months 
after Asquith, the British Prime Minister, had said, 
"We shall never sheathe the sword which we have 
not lightly drawn until Belgium recovers in full 
measure all and more than all that she has sacrificed, 
until France is adequately secured against the 
menace of aggression, until the rights of the smaller 
nationalities of Europe are placed upon an unas- 
sailable foundation, and until the mihtary domina- 
tion of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed." 
This statement of Asquith's is idealistic, and also 
has the saving grace of being definite, practical, 
and clearly understandable, and it was said, in 1914, 
when it was so greatly needed by the outraged civi- 
hzed world. 

On December 4th, 1917, our President touches 
more clearly the practical side of the issues involved 
in the war, and which were brought home to the 
American Government by their bitter and direct 
experience with the immoral outlaw among nations : 
"This intolerable thing of which the masters of 
Germany have shown us the ugly face — this menace 
of combined intrigue and force which we now see so 
clearly as the German power, a thing without con- 
science or honor or capacity for covenanted peace, 
must be crushed, and if it be not utterly brought 
to an end, at least shut out from the friendly inter- 
course of the nations." But Germany did not 



380 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

change one tittle between 1914 and 1917, and what 
our Executive proclaimed at the end of 1917, had 
been suspected with cause in Europe for many long 
decades before the war, and had been definitely and 
positively known and fully understood in all its 
devilish ramifications since August, 1914. "Our 
present and immediate task is to win the war and 
nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accom- 
plished. . . . We shall regard the war as won 
only when the German people say to us, through 
properly accredited representatives, that they are 
ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice 
and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have 
done." When reading these words one can but feel 
that in 1914 they would have been timely, but 
uttered in December of 1917, although inspiring to 
the war-weary Allies, who have sacrificed their all 
in the interest of democracy, justice, and freedom, 
they lack the moral grandeur that might have been 
theirs. 

After four years of cruel war, justice can never 
be administered by the conquering champions of 
Democracy to the vanquished Teuton nations at the 
Peace Conference. It will be impossible to secure 
from Germany and her accomplices in crime repara- 
tion for the violated rights and liberties and the 
wrongs that she has committed, for the lives that 
she has taken, for the atrocities and the ruthless 
destruction for which she is responsible. If Ger- 
many's entire wealth was confiscated it would never 
be sufficient to adequately reimburse the nations of 
the world for their expense in combatting Germany 
in self-defense and in the interests of humanity, and 
money can never compensate for the loss of life and 
the fiendish deeds far worse than the taking of life. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 381 

Germany at the Peace Table had better forget the 
plea for justice, for even her annihilation as a nation 
would fall far short of reparation in the realm of 
Law. Germany, when this cruel war ends, should 
be a supplicant for mercy, but it is extremely 
doubtful that the Teuton mind can be made to 
quickly see truth, acknowledge error, and express 
heartfelt repentance and soul repugnance for evils 
performed against humanity. Reparation and resti- 
tution should be demanded and exacted to the limit 
of practicability, but the greatest possible indem- 
nity that may be required must of necessity prove 
very inadequate and unsatisfactory. 

Our American forces will probably tip the bal- 
ance by their weight and splendid morale on the 
side of the Allies, but it is quite possible that a fear- 
less moral support of the Allies' anti-militaristic 
cause in August, 1914, would have been more potent 
than our armed support in 1918; that the bitter 
denunciation of Germany by the neutral countries 
of the world, led by America, might have com- 
pelled Germany to honor to a great degree the 
dictates of International law, and kept Turkey and 
Bulgaria out of the war and Russia in, as an effec- 
tive combatant, with the duration of the war short- 
ened by years. 

On January 26th, 1916, or about eighteen months 
before we entered the war. Sir Edward Grey, in the 
British House of Commons, told in concise words 
the cause for which the Allies were fighting: "The 
great object to be attained ... is that there 
shall not again be this sort of militarism in Europe, 
which in time of peace causes the whole of the con- 
tinent discomfort by its continual menace, and then, 
when it thinks the moment has come that suits itself, 



382 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

plunges the continent into war;" and again in June, 
1916, he said: "What we and our AUies are fight- 
ing for is a free Europe. We want a Europe free, 
not only from the domination of one nationality by 
another, but from hectoring diplomacy and the peril 
of war, free from the constant rattling of the sword 
in the scabbard, from perpetual talk of shining 
armor and war lords. In fact, we feel we are fight- 
ing for equal rights; for law, justice, peace; for 
civilization throughout the world as against brute 
force, which knows no restraint and no mercy. 

"What Prussia purposes is Prussian supremacy. 
She proposes a Europe modeled and ruled by 
Prussia. She is to dispose of the hberties of her 
neighbors and of us all. We say that life on these 
terms is intolerable. And this also is what France 
and Italy and Russia say. We are fighting the 
German idea of the wholesomeness, almost the 
desirability, of ever recurrent war. Germany's 
philosophy is that a settled peace spells degeneracy. 
Such a philosophy, if it is to survive as a practical 
force, means eternal apprehension and um*est. It 
means ever-increasing armaments. It means arrest- 
ing the development of mankind along the lines of 
culture and humanity. . . . 

"The Allies can tolerate no peace that leaves the 
wrongs of this war unredressed. Peace counsels 
that are purely abstract and make no attempt to 
discriminate between the rights and the wrongs of 
this war are ineffective if not irrelevant. . . . 

"The Prussian authorities have apparently but 
one idea of peace, an iron peace imposed on other 
nations by German supremacy. They do not under- 
stand that free men and free nations will rather die 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 383 

than submit to that ambition, and that there can be 
no end to war till it is defeated and renounced." 

Franklin K, Lane, Secretary of the Interior, in 
Why are we fighting Germany, says, "The brief 
answer is that ours is a war for self-defense. . . . 
We could not keep out. The invasion of Belgium 
which opened the war, led to the invasion of the 
United States by slow, steady, logical steps. Our 
sympathies evolved into a conviction of self-interest. 
Our love of fair play ripened into alarm at our own 
peril. We talked in the language and in the spirit 
of good faith and sincerity, as honest men should 
talk, until we discovered that our talk was con- 
strued as cowardice. And Mexico was called upon 
to invade us. We talked as men would talk who 
cared alone for peace and the advancement of their 
own material interests, until we discovered that we 
were thought to be a nation of mere money makers, 
devoid of all character — until, indeed, we were told 
that we could not walk the highways of the world 
without permission of a Prussian soldier; that our 
ships might not sail v/ithout wearing a striped uni- 
form of humiliation upon a narrow path of national 
subservience. We talked as men talk who hope for 
honest agreement, not for war, until we found that 
the treaty torn to pieces at Liege was but the 
symbol of a policy that made agreements worthless 
against a purpose that knew no word but success. 
And so we came into this war for ourselves. It is a 
war to save America — to preserve self-respect, to 
justify our right to live as we have lived, not as some 
one else wishes us to live. In the name of freedom 
we challenge with ships and men, money, and an 
undaunted spirit, that word 'Verboten' which Ger- 
many has written upon the sea and upon the land. 



384 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

For America is not the name of so much territory. 
It is a hving spirit, born in travail, grown in the 
rough school of bitter experiences, a living spirit 
which has purpose and pride, and conscience — 
knows why it wishes to live and to what end, knows 
how it comes to be respected of the world, and hopes 
to retain that respect by living on with the light of 
Lincoln's love of man as its Old and New Testa- 
ment." 

Lane goes on to say that we are now in the war 
because of Belgium, France, Britain, and Russia, 
and "because of other peoples, with their rising hope 
that the world may be freed from government by 
the soldier;" then he says that "we are fighting Ger- 
many because she sought to terrorize us and then to 
fool us. . . . We could not believe that Ger- 
many would do what she said she would do;" and 
again, "We believed Germany's promises that she 
would respect the neutral flag and the rights of 
neutrals." Was not this confidence in Germany 
exceedingly foolish and thoroughly unwarranted, 
with the knowledge of the experience of trustful 
Belgium clearly before us? "We are fighting Ger- 
many because she violated our confidence. . . . 
We are fighting Germany because while we were 
yet her friends — the only great power that still kept 
hands off — she sent the Zimmermann note, calling 
to her aid Mexico, our southern neighbor, hoping 
to lure Japan into war against this Nation of 
peace." Trustful, inexperienced America, so grossly 
ignorant of Europe and the ideals and aspirations 
of European nations ! 

We are fighting Germany because the light of 
truth stirred the American conscience and de- 
manded that American manhood express itself in 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 385 

the battle for world ideals, for freedom, justice and 
democracy. When Americans glimpsed the truth 
and perceived the great issues of the world combat, 
they were not "too proud to fight," but heroically 
proved their sublime practical idealism by being 
proud to fight, for humanity and humanity's God, 
with the sjilendid and heroic French, the stone-wall, 
tenacious British, and the brave survivors of the 
noble, martyred Belgium. 

When the truth of the principles at stake in the 
world war percolated through the national mind, 
America emphatically repudiated the suggested and 
oft expressed belief of the Government that peace 
should come without victor or vanquished. The 
forces of Evil and the Hordes of Hell must be de- 
feated, or life in the future would not be worth 
living. America stripped for the fight and nobly 
met sacrifices for the sake of humanity and for the 
benefit of coming generations. America became a 
nation of Idealists, and war was waged not for 
selfish benefit but for mankind, and for children yet 
unborn. 

We are proud of our citizen army and navy, of 
American traditions, American power and Ameri- 
can success, but in the hour of approaching triumph, 
when we see the writing upon the wall that foretells 
Germany's approaching and inevitable doom, if we 
have understood the war aright and properly ap- 
preciated the forces at work and the results attained, 
the discouragements, the sacrifices, the heroic stead- 
fastness to principles, our hearts must turn with 
thankfulness and admiration, not only to our won- 
derful armed forces, who never flinched but carried 
on to glorious victory against tremendous odds, 
but even more to the French, British, Belgian and 
Italian heroes who fought year after year, nobly 



386 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

and confidently, in defeat and victory, in necessary 
retreat or volitional attack, with ample supplies or 
at times without the needed armaments and muni- 
tions, with "impregnable" positions ahead to be 
taken, or when driven with their backs to the wall 
by Teuton weight of numbers and concentrated 
military power. The great debt of civilization, of 
Democracy, of Religion, and of Humanity is due 
the Belgians, French, and British who, from the 
early days of August, 1914, have given their all on 
the Altar of Freedom for the benefit of mankind 
and the true progress of the world. 

Americans will always have cause to be proud of 
the great and decisive part which they will play in 
the greatest war waged in the history of the world, 
but the great honor will go rightly to Belgium, who 
loved honor more than life; to Britain, whose loyalty 
and faithfulness to her plighted word was sub- 
lime; and to the incomparable France, who, when 
wantonly attacked and bled almost to death, never 
lost faith, but whose magnificent courage increased 
under stress and even in disaster. These nations 
fought not only for the Homeland, but they fought 
for America and for every people who are free or 
who desire to be free on the face of the earth. Bel- 
gium, France, and Britain heroically accepted, in 
1914, the role of the champion warriors of Democ- 
racy, and if they had failed in their task, America 
would have had to fight later and alone against the 
"Blond Beast" of Hohenzollern Militarism, on the 
seas and in our own western land. 

When the war ends with the triumph of allied 
arms, and America is praised and feted for her 
splendid, though belated support in the fight for 
human liberty, let us not forget, in our joyful exal- 
tation, where the honor and glory really lie; and 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 387 

when the warring nations gather at the Peace Table 
it would be fitting for America to consider Presi- 
dent Wilson's peace proposal of January 8, 1918, 
with its meritorious and much-discussed fourteen 
points, not as the Law of Moses, proclaimed by 
Yahweh, on Mount Sinai, or as "the laws of the 
Medes and Persians which altereth not," but as a 
tentative expression of an honest American mind 
desirous of stating — as he then saw them — the 
fundamental principles upon which a just and last- 
ing treaty of peace could be negotiated, but which 
time, study, and momentous passing events, with 
the more complete knowledge and deeper wisdom 
which come from riper experience and a more direct 
contact with the leading minds of people more inti- 
mately connected with the war and the causes that 
led thereto, will naturallj^ clarify and probably ma- 
terially modify. 

There is nothing new or original in the fourteen 
propositions advanced by President Wilson as a 
basis of peace negotiations. In the main they 
represent the fine ideahsm and lofty humanitarian- 
ism freely expressed by the leading ethical minds of 
our Alhes during the progress of the war, but they 
lack completeness and a greatly needed practical 
working definiteness. Several of the propositions 
as presented are couched in more or less ambiguity, 
and are, therefore, susceptible of very diflFerent 
interpretations, some of which would be extremely 
dangerous and thwart the very object they seek to 
attain, viz., the concluding of a just and lasting 
peace. 

The European nations which have stood the brunt 
of this horrible war for over four years knew the 
truth with respect to Germany in August, 1914. 



388 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

America was grossly ignorant of this truth, but has 
been gradually approaching it as the years have 
rolled by. That we can quickly overtake Europe 
in our knowledge of facts and of peculiarly Euro- 
pean conditions, cannot be expected. That we can 
bring to the Peace Table thoughts freed from 
European traditions and inspired without any hope 
of gain or selfish advantage and with a thought 
single only to the best interests of humanity, is posi- 
tively to be expected. America's service to the 
democratic nations of Europe at the Peace Confer- 
ence, when hostilities cease, should be as complete 
as we, a democratic nation, are capable of giving 
and are privileged to give, but we must not forget 
that Belgium, France, and Britain were actually 
fighting for democracy and for us for thirty-two 
months before our Government gave them a help- 
ing hand or even proffered substantial moral sup- 
port — before we, in America, really seemed to 
understand the vital issues of the Great World 
War. 

In the stress of combat, when nations are strug- 
gling for their very existence and threatened with 
possible defeat, they are chastened in thought and 
aspirations; and if their cause is just, they rise 
during the uncertainty of the conflict to veritable 
heights of ideahsm and spiritual grandeur. In 
military triumph, however, especially if it be over- 
whelming, idealism is apt to wane and be sup- 
planted more or less by a somewhat sordid ambition 
for power and for the materialistic benefits which 
are expected to accrue as a result of the utilization 
of such power. A defeated and humiliated people 
generally find it easier to accept sublime spiritual 
truth than a people gloriously \actorious in arms. 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 389 

and when this war ends on the battlefields of the old 
world, a greater battle for eternal principles and 
immutable, universal justice will probably have to 
be waged at the Peace Conferences — not so much 
with our present enemies, who, of course, must be 
made to experience the bitter dregs and burden of 
their guilt, but with our Allies and our own selves, 
for the inevitable tendency will be to gravitate from 
glorious heights of noble idealism to the baser plane 
of opportunism, political advantage, of selfish bar- 
gaining, concessions, compromises, etc., with the 
present apotheosized at the expense of the future. 

The people of democratic nations are fighting to 
put an end to all wars and to create a setting for 
the expression and guarantee of justice — personal, 
national, and universal; the Peace Treaty must 
attain this end and insure not only justice but 
security to all mankind and to all nations, great and 
small, or the war will have been fought in vain. 
No single power should come forth from this con- 
flict unduly aggrandized, and no restricted group 
of nations, because they have temporarily gained 
the power, should emerge from the war as the ex- 
clusive, arrogant and domineering champions of 
freedom and democracy. The smaller or relatively 
weak but well established nations will not welcome 
being either bulbed or patronized, but they do yearn 
for and will demand liberty in right doing and in 
the prosecution of lawful enterprises. Benevolent 
and truly democratic trusteeship of young aspiring 
free peoples, inexperienced in self-government will 
be essential, but it must be the trusteeship of a Con- 
gress of Nations freed from national selfishness and 
from a craving for increased power at the expense 
of weaker or relatively backward peoples. 



390 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

Unmitigated justice cannot be meted out to the 
Teuton nations and their Alhes, for pure justice 
would demand not only their repudiation and ostra- 
cism by all civilized peoples, but their economic 
extermination. The desperadoes, whose unscrupu- 
lous ambitions, inhumanity and falseness have 
plunged the world into the most horrible catastrophe 
and the greatest sorrow of all time, must be pun- 
ished and rendered impotent, with the only avenue 
leading to the company and congress of law-abiding 
democratic peoples, being the waj^ of true penitence 
and regeneration — a psychological condition which 
the German people can only reach in dire adversity 
and deep, distressing humiliation following the 
defeat of their armies, the acknowledged failure of 
their militaristic Machiavellian policy and their hein- 
ous doctrine of immoralism, and the absolute over- 
throw for all time of the Hohenzollerns, Hapsburgs, 
and their kind, and the hideous principles for which 
they stand. 

Viviani, the Premier of France, proclaimed the 
nobilitj' and justice of his country's position at the 
commencement of the war when he said: "We have 
been without reproach; we shall be without fear." 
These memorable words have grown convincingly 
potent as the truth has been revealed to us and as 
history has been gloriously written by a heroic peo- 
ple and her noble Allies, who have not only sacri- 
ficed unstintingly, but have willingly risked their all 
to hold back through fateful years of discourage- 
ment, adversity and bitter anguish, those Prussian- 
ized lawless hordes that threatened to overthrow all 
that free and spiritually-minded men hold dear and 
sacred in life. INIay the same spirit of human jus- 
tice, fearless courage, and a resultant serenity of 



THE GERMAN OBSESSION 391 

soul, as voiced by Viviani, actuate and strengthen in 
virtue the victorious AUied Powers when they meet 
at the Peace Table, so that their duty to their own 
people, and to humanity at large, may be done fear- 
lessly, void of all scheming and restraining politics 
and attempts at national, i. e., selfish and unwar- 
ranted advantage, with their inevitable accompany- 
ing injustice, and also in a way that will bring no 
reproach from those high-minded, thinking peoples 
who dwell in every part of this great world. 

The liberty and well-being not only of the people of 
today but of future generations will be determined 
at the Peace Conference following this, the greatest 
war of all time, and children yet unborn who, with 
greater wisdom, acquired in harmony with the laws 
of evolution from an expanding and progressive 
culture and benefited by the more extended history 
of himian experience, will sit in judgment upon the 
momentous acts of those Peace Delegates, in whose 
hands will be placed — at least for a time — the des- 
tiny of the world. 

No peace can be justificvl and no peace will live 
that contains within it the germ of war, whether this 
discordant element be self-evident and clearly 
expressed or cunningly concealed and subtly hidden 
in ambiguous or deceiving phrases. No peace can 
survive that is not founded on absolute justice and 
the higher law, on the inalienable rights and obliga- 
tions of humanity, and on the liberty and sovereignty 
of the people. High ideals are not easily realized 
in actual life, but no ideal toward which we strive 
should be admittedly less than perfect. The noble 
and generous determination of free peoples to de- 
mand justice and Hberty for all, when practically 
applied and made definite and virile by workable 



392 THE GERMAN OBSESSION 

international treaties, will propel the world upward 
toward the Great Human Ideal, and not only mini- 
mize, but substantially tend to eliminate war and a 
large measure of human suffering, discouragement, 
and unhappiness. The goal toward which the cul- 
tured and spiritually-minded peoples of the world 
have set their faces and now earnestly strive to 
approach, is not an elusive will-o'-the-wisp, but a 
fixed, unchanging ideal toward which the world will 
gradually but surely advance as the centuries and 
millenniums roll by. The greatest single step that 
mankind has ever taken in the direction of the Great 
Ideal should result from the practical deliberations 
at the Peace Conferences, and the measure of truth 
and justice that the Peace Treaty contains will 
determine its benefit to the world and the value of 
its contribution to himianity and the Great Cause of 
All Things. 



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